def _delete_rows(args):
    """Delete the given row keys from the given Bigtable.

    The args are (BigtableSpec, row_keys), but are passed
    as a single argument in order to work with
    multiprocessing.Pool.map.  This is also the reason why this is a
    top-level function instead of a method.

    """
    btspec, row_keys = args
    bt_table = bigtable.Client(btspec.project).instance(
        btspec.instance).table(btspec.table)
    rows = [bt_table.row(k) for k in row_keys]
    for r in rows:
        r.delete()
    bt_table.mutate_rows(rows)
    return row_keys