The devil’s bones were discovered buried under a Japanese temple in 1895. The bones were brought back to the United States where they were said to have been either the remains of a 9-foot primate or a total hoax.
Part of the original article is below.
The Devil is Dead Now and Here’s His Skeleton
The devil is dead. Not only so, but his remains have been shipped to New York and are to be seen today in an establishment on Winter Street.
The remains of the devil were smuggled out of Japan at the risk of the lives of several men who confessed that they stood in fear of the personage whose bones they were attempting to carry to this country. To be plain, there was found some years ago in the ruins of a Japanese temple a grave in which there were the bones making up an apparently perfect skeleton of gigantic proportions and altogether strange and hideous in appearance which, according to an inscription found above the tomb, constituted nothing less than the remains of his Satanic Majesty, as the Japanese understood him.
A doctor in Yokohama, to whom the news of the discovery was brought, succeeded in obtaining possession of the astonishing skeleton, and in time conspired with the captain of a tramp steamer which visits New York, and succeeded in having the dead devil forwarded to this city.
A Miller & Sons, who now have the skeleton devil in keeping, have much to do with shipping men, Captain Williams, of the steamer Argyle, decided to place in their possession the seven foot box in which the skeleton was contained.
Skeleton Size
When the box was opened a few weeks ago and the straw and strange wrapping paper removed, Mr. Miller found an apparently perfect skeleton of some creature of gigantic stature. The box was only seven feet long, and in order that the giant bone might be accommodated, those of the thighs and legs had been placed beside the rest of the skeleton. To begin with, there was a terrific head. The skull presented a frontal bone almost a foot across, showing eye sockets of astonishing size, a square jaw like nothing that anatomists know, and a mouth fully six inches wide, garnished with twenty-eight teeth which were closed and interlocked and of astonishing size and sharpness.
Altogether the effect was truly terrifying. The head was articulated to the vertebrae, and the spinal column was almost five feet in length, to which ribs of tremendous proportions and a sternum of immense strength and size were joined. The skeleton was apparently complete from the skull to the end of t he pelvis. Beside it were placed which and leg bones, which it seemed at first glance must have belonged to some monster of the guerrilla species.
The legs apparently had been of the short and tremendously powerful order, which New Yorkers have seen in the Central Park menagerie when Chico was alive and imprisoned there.
The foot was fully fourteen inches long, and had but three toes, each of which, in addition to being of enormous length, was furnished with an almost claw-like nail. Its appearance, therefore, was between that to the human foot and that belonging to a bird of the ostrich species greatly exaggerated.
Some attempts had been made to re-articulate the skeleton, for the knee joints were furnished with modern couplings of brass and the bones were really ready for mounting.
Captain Williams of the steamer Argyle, who entrusted the box and its contents to Miller & Sons a few weeks ago, told them simply that the skeleton was the property of an European doctor now resident in Japan, and that the director of a Japanese hospital was authority for the statement that the bones were those of a monster which lived long ago in the mountainous regions of Japan. He assisted the doctor in smuggling it out of the country, and apparently believed that it was a genuine skeleton.
As a matter of fact the skeleton contains bones of the bovine, equine, human and shark families, and having been brought here and sized up by an expert in anatomy, they furnish material for an expose of Japanese demonology which is nothing short of remarkable.
This skeleton was simply manufactured long years ago and buried beneath a temple at Kutsu to serve the purposes of a clique of priests who ruled that section of Japan by fear at that time.
Accordingly when the skeleton was finally discovered, there was found beside it a sort of map containing a picture of the devil in life, together with a full description as to the manner of his death and internment. The map contained a picture which is presented here without any attempt at producing the finer lines, which are of Japanese workmanship and intricate beyond measure.
Buried ages ago under a temple in the center of an inland province of Japan, and one, which, by the way, has been of great interest since to archaeologists, it was discovered by workmen who were excavating for the purpose of erecting a new structure on the old site. Thirteen feet below the surface of what had been the cellar of the old temple the workmen discovered an old stone grave, bearing an inscription in Japanese characters which being interpreted means “The Tomb of the Devil.”
This, together with the discovery of the remarkable bones which the coffin contained caused great excitement among the Japanese and led to a scientific investigation of the nature of the discovery.
The Herald, learning that the remains of the devil, as constructed by Japanese artisans, had been forwarded to this country, requested the Water Street firm to permit an examination of the bones.
I called there a day or two ago and inspected the box and its contents. To the layman the skeleton was apparently that of a giant ape or some similar monster, which in life must have been nine feet high and have presented an appearance which was terrifying beyond measure.
On Friday last I succeeded in interesting Dr. William J. O’Sullivan, the medico-legal expert, in the death of the devil and the discover of its remains, and in inducing him to visit the Miller cooperage and inspect the bones.
Dr. O’Sullivan was at once pleased and astonished. He examined the bones with great care and said, “Here is something which, while it has been manufactured with an art which the Japanese only possess, will excite great interest among the archaeologists in this country. The map itself is simply a marvel of that rare work which the Japanese execute and in which they are unexcelled.
Source: The herald. (Los Angeles [Calif.]), 06 Oct. 1895.
The doctor goes on to state more dismissals about the bones and the whole thing is tossed aside as a hoax.
