The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-25
a JAPANESE DEMON.
This One Was Fraud and the Swim
der Was Punished.
rFrom the japan NALL

LFrom the Japan NALL
"A most ingenious swindler recently
met with punishment at the hands of
the Kumamoto police authorities, after
having for more than three months i'm
posed on the credulity of the people. He
exhibited what he was pleased to call
1.-The skeleton of Demon and in con-
nection with this has been convicted of
more daring duplicity and sent up
for long term to place where flesh
and blood demons are of not infrequent
occurrence. This Japanese is one Mich
igami Kotaro, a native of village in
Bingo, his real profession being that of
a paper hanger (hyoguya.) Being dis
satisfied with the profits derived from
honest trade, he conceived the idea of
manufacturing the skeleton of the good
old-fashioned Shutendoji type, believ-
ing that he would make a fortune by
exhibiting it. In manufacturing the
huge skull he used the cranial bones
OF horses and oxen. These he joined to-
gether most deftly by covering them ON
the inner side. with skin taken from
the stomach Of an OK. Horse teeth in
serted the wrong way were placed in
The demons" mouth, giving the skull
a most ferociouS expression.T Two horns
remained to be soldered on. in strict
accord with the received traditions of,
demons in Japan, and here again the.
horns of an OK were put into reuuisi-
ton In order to make the horns look
old and well-worn, he first boiled them
In nitric acid and then polished them
with tokusa, the equisetum or "scour-
ing rush, a plant containing much sill
lea. The spine, ribs and sundry other
bones were made out of those of horses
and oxen. To disguise their original
color and give them an ancient an
pearance he besmeared them with a
mixture of lime and powdered gaIl-nut.
and so particular was he that he even
caused little hair to grow on the skull
by covering it with a strip of cats
skin. After completing his exhibit, the
next thought was to obtain a docu-
ment guaranteeing its genuineness. To
this effect he composed a written ma
per, taking great care to give it, with
the aid of sundry chemicals, the re-
quisite frayed and aged look, after
Whch, by touching It with honey here
and there, he caused it to be gnawed
by worms, keeping it for this purpose
for several days in a box wherein he
mad previously placed some bookworms.
These thorough preparations being com
pleted, he set out on sWindling tour
IN February of this year, and earned a
substantial sum by exhibiting his hand
iwork. But fate was lying in wait for
him at Kumamoto. The fraud was de-
tected, and the swindling three-the
skeleton, the document and the man
were imprisoned. Yet it was by no
means easy to unmask the fellow. Let
tiers were forwarded to the district off
flee in Bingo, where he was registered,
and the answer elected the fact that he
was travelling under an alias. Another
letter was then dispatched to the local
authorities of a certain district in the
island of Oki, where the Snowman de-
clared he had unearthed the great find
The reply was in this instance fatal to
dishonesty, the whole story being de-.
clared as arrant untruth. Confronted
with these incentroyertible proofs, the
man finally made clean breast of it,
giving minute description of the man
ner in which he had made the skeleton.