Recorded by James G. Swan for the Smithsonian in his 1874 report “Haidah Indians: Queen Charlotte’s Islands, British Columbia, with a Brief Description of Their Carvings, Tattoo Designs, Etc.”
“Fig. 3 (Plate 4) is called Wasko, another mythological being of the antediluvian age. This represents the ancestors of the present race of wolves. It is similar to the Chu-chu-hu-uxl of the Makahs, and the tradition is, that after the primitive race had produced the present genus of wolf, the Wasko were transformed into the killer (orca ater). The sharp teeth and powerful jaws of the killer, resembling more the mouth of a carnivorous land animal than any of the inhabitants of the water, was undoubtedly the origin of the fable.
Scammon, in his Cetacea of the Northwest Coast, styles them the cannibals of the whale tribe. The Wasko, as I have copied it, was tattooed on the back of the chief Kitkun.”
“Fig. 4 (Plate 4) is the Scana or killer (Orca ater)”