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Up the Snohomish River is a place by the name of Hoh-wee-yah, a little mountain. John’s father sent him up there when a small boy and the first time he went there he came to a little stream of water. The first thing after he bathed in this stream he met a little bird by the name of Huah-uts-quah. This bird told him that there were two twin brother lizards that wanted to meet him at a certain place around this Hoh-wee-yah. So John went home and the next night he went there again. While watching for these lizards and all the time trying to imagine what and how they were going to look like, he soon heard a noise like a slide of rocks coming down from Hoh-wee-yah. Soon he saw the twin brothers coming out from the mountain, looking like fire and getting closer and closer. Then he thought of what the bird told him and went right up to them and these great lizards spoke of themselves and told him they were great and brave, and that their home was right among the rocks, and that they were tough animals for they could stand any kind of wound. Each one of them had cuts on both sides of their bodies. Then these two lizards started in and sang their tunes to Koh-weets and began to act and dance around, telling Koh-weets that these twin lizards were going to be with him all the time; that it did not matter how much he would be cut up, it would never kill him. While he was with the great lizards, Koh-weets thought of what his father often told him about them, the great totems, and he was careful to listen to the tunes that the great lizards were teaching him so he would not forget them. After that the great lizards went back to their home in the little mountain and Koh-weets went down to his home. The rule was that he was not supposed to be happy, but very quiet. They say that sign to the old folks that he must have met a totem of some kind, but they don’t dare ask him until he becomes a man. Then he will sing the tune the great lizards taught him right in a big potlatch or big meeting to show that he is a powerful man. Koh-weets is quite an old man and to this day he still thinks that the only thing which keeps him up is this great totem of his.
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