Pecos Bill is a cowboy hero of the American Southwest. He was the legendary inventor of roping, branding, and other cowboy skills. He also invented the six-shooter and train robbery and taught broncos how to buck.

According to legend, Pecos Bill was born in eastern Texas during the 1830’s. He used a bowie knife as a teething ring and played with bears and other wild animals. During a trip west, Bill fell out of the family wagon near the Pecos River in Texas. He became lost and was raised by coyotes. When Bill grew up, he had tamed all the wild animals in the West. He rode a mountain lion and used a rattlesnake as a whip and became known as the West’s king of beasts.

To win a bet, Pecos Bill once rode an Oklaoma cyclone without a saddle. When the great twister came, he gave a loud whistle, and every rattlesnake in Texas rushed up to him. Bill made them into a huge lasso. He threw the lasso into the clouds and it dropped right over the top of the cyclone. He held onto his lasso and managed to sit on the cyclone’s back. The cyclone could not shake him off its back. The cyclone to cry and its tears became rain. The rain fell so heavily that it created the Grand Canyon. Bill crashed in California, and the force of his fall created Death Valley. There are several versions of Bill’s death. In one, he laughed to death after a man from Boston asked him silly questions about the West.（英語(yǔ)故事帶翻譯m.fenghuangtongcheng.cn ）

翻譯：

佩克斯•比爾是美國(guó)西南部的牛仔傳奇人物。據(jù)說(shuō)是他最先使用套索套牲口，最先用烙鐵在牲口身上做標(biāo)記，還創(chuàng)造了許多別的牛仔技術(shù)。他還發(fā)明了轉(zhuǎn)輪手槍、搶劫火車(chē)的方法，甚至還會(huì)教烈馬尥蹶子把騎手甩下去。

據(jù)說(shuō)佩克斯•比爾于19世紀(jì)30年代出生在得克薩斯東部。一般人家的孩子出牙時(shí)咬些膠皮玩意兒，而比爾咬的卻是一把獵刀。跟他一起玩耍的，是熊和別的野獸。他家西遷時(shí)，走到得克薩斯的佩科斯河附近，他從馬車(chē)上掉下來(lái)，成了沒(méi)爹沒(méi)娘的孩子，由叢林狼喂養(yǎng)大。成人后，他馴服了西部所有的野獸。他用山獅當(dāng)坐騎，用響尾蛇做鞭子，成了大名鼎鼎的西部百獸之王。

有一次為了打賭，佩克斯•比爾不用鞍子就騎上了一般俄克拉何馬的旋風(fēng)。旋風(fēng)來(lái)時(shí)，他吹了一聲口哨，得克薩斯的所有響尾蛇都匆忙趕來(lái)。比爾將它們首尾相連，做成一個(gè)巨大無(wú)比的套索，設(shè)法騎到旋風(fēng)的背上。旋風(fēng)甩不掉他，就開(kāi)始哭了，淚水成了瓢潑大雨。雨水成了洪水，在地上沖出一道溝來(lái)，這就是大峽谷。風(fēng)住了，比爾從天上掉下來(lái)，在地上砸出一個(gè)大坑，這就是死谷。至于佩克斯•比爾是怎么死的，有幾種不同的說(shuō)法。據(jù)其中一種說(shuō)法，當(dāng)一個(gè)來(lái)自波士頓的人問(wèn)他有關(guān)西部的問(wèn)題時(shí)，這個(gè)愚蠢的問(wèn)題可笑之極，他笑得一口氣沒(méi)上來(lái)，就這么死了。

題外話(huà)：這個(gè)故事頗能反映邊民或牛仔的特點(diǎn)。他們頑強(qiáng)、兇悍、好斗、喜歡吹牛，講些不著邊際的故事，又不乏幽默感。他們崇拜有本事的強(qiáng)者，對(duì)于強(qiáng)者所干的非法勾當(dāng)，他們的態(tài)度相當(dāng)曖昧。因?yàn)檫吔貐^(qū)法律鞭長(zhǎng)莫及，適者生存。比如，他們對(duì)搶劫銀行、攔截火車(chē)的大盜杰西•詹姆斯就頗有好感，有歌頌他的著名歌謠為證。