Tark, in his element, cleared his throat. "Burkingmen is a slang term derived from both Japanese and English. The Japanese root is Burakumin and denotes the untouchable class of Japanese who perform the onerous duty—to Buddhists—of slaughtering animals and preparing hides for sale. It was coupled with the English word of burke, which means kill, but has an older meaning of resurrecting dead bodies for further use, as with William Burke and Edmund Hare in Scotland several centuries ago."