The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-02-14
A STRANGE OCCUPATION
Preparing Bones for Shipment to
China.
A House In Nuuanu Stream Where This
Is Done-A Gruesome Trade
Carried On.

Situated just at the foot OF Hotel
street and a little back of the buildings
fronting on the land now being butt
up by the dredger mud, silt and sand,
ia a very rough Sxl2 structure o. most
unpromisiDg appearance. 1t stanos
on four posts about four feet from tue
ground aud looks for all the world
like a top-heavy pigeon coop. To
look at its exterior would mean moth
ing to the observer, but to know OF IT.
inside workings would make every
thing about it interesting at once.
II is known as the Chinese clue
house Whenever q Chinaman has a
bag of human bone TO prepare Ior
TRANSPORTATION to China 1t Is INSIDE
the very narrow limits of this struc
ture that the work of scraping away
dried-up skin, Iigaments and otheT
unnecessary matter is done.
A peep in at the window close on TO
the hour of midnight in the dark OF
the moon is perhaps the best mode OF
receiving a tasting impression on see
ing a couple of Cinnamon seated on
the floor. each with pile of bones IN
front of him and working by the dim
rays of q peanut oil lamp. A broken
sickle in the hands OF one serves 10
cut away the unnecessary dried SKID
and ligameDts, while a cocoanut
crater in the hands Of the other, does
good work toward removing what the
sickle has failed to do. A couple OF
black oil cloth valises constitute the
receptacles for the bones which are
done I'D, some in cloth and others
IN brown paper. Such portions as
the skull are always wrapped In
cloth while the legs and arms
suffer the indignity of brown paper:
A pile of scrapings here and
there furnish the only decorations
that the room affords. Cracks in the
walls serve, on a windy night, TO
make peculiar noises, which seem q
fitting accompaniment for the WORK
of the Industrious ones inside.
Ever since the Chinese flrst came
into the country has this custom oeen
observed, and as long as they remain
here will the same thing go on. No
matter if the law says they shall not
dig up the dead from places OF burial,
they will continue to do 1t some way
or other. II the present club houses
is removed they will have recourse 70
another place.
The former position of the club
house was where the dredger pipes
are now emptying their mud. LII Will
be remembered that Nuuanu stream
was in a very decidedly marshy con
dition at that point before the intro
duction of improvements.
Then, as now, Cinnamon made
nightly visits to the place and scrapeO
the bones of their relatives prepare
tory to transportation, but instead o.
carrying all waste material as they
have to do now, they simply dumped
this into the stream to be carried ou
to sea or to settle among the bui
rushes.
The work of the preparation o
bones for transportation is done open
ly and any one who wishes may
satisfy his curiosity by paying visl
to the place on most any night OF the
week. OF course at the present time
the Chinese are too much taken vi
with their new year to even think
the bones of their relatives, but 1t Il
very probable there will be mum
Der of skeletons ready TO be exhumet
next week. The sight is we'll wOftf
seeing and should be taken advantag
of by people interested in unu-ua
| scenes. To visit the place during tn
day would be folly for nothing is dom
then. All that can be seen at tina
time is couple of oil cloth bags,
cocoanuf CRATER, a sickle and pile
waste material.