FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS 
139 
quence being a keen demand for them at high prices. 
Enterprising individuals set to work to procure what 
was wanted, and some skulls and bones were secretly 
secured, with the aid of some Japanese. The matter 
reached the ears of a Consular official of another 
nationality, who, it was alleged, had himself been 
trying to obtain specimens, but had failed; and 
being much put out to think others had got ahead 
of him, he divulged the affair to the Japanese 
authorities. The Japanese cared no more for the 
Ainu, dead or alive, than they did for their own 
dogs; but something had to be done, and representa¬ 
tions were accordingly made to the British Consul, 
who instituted inquiries, and reported the matter to 
H.M. Minister in Tokyo. The skeletons had to be 
accounted for somehow, so it was given out that 
those having the bones, fearing discovery, had taken 
them on to Hakodate Head and thrown them over 
a cliff into the sea. This was not satisfactory; the 
bones had to be produced, and the Consular Con¬ 
stable was ordered to try and fish them up. Of 
course no bones were there. 
In the end the remains of an old priest who had 
been recently buried in an out-of-the-way place 
were secretly dug up at night, conveyed to a certain 
compound, and the body put into a large iron 
caldron used for melting pitch. After all the flesh 
had been boiled off the bones, they were put into a 
sack and taken at night and thrown over a cliff into 
the sea. After this, of course, the Consular Con¬ 
stable was able to fish up sufficient of the Ainu 
bones to satisfy the Japanese authorities, and so 
far as they were concerned the incident closed. But 
the episode had a lasting effect upon the career of 
