The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-28
WHY ALL CHINESE
BOATS HAVE EYES.
Curious Legend That Explains the
Painted Eye On the Bow.
Rv L II HolIapdar


BY ]. H. Hollander.
st. Louis, Aug. 27.-The broad sea
coast of China has been far-famed for
its intrepid navigators. The collection
of models of sea and river going craft
of every description, as an evidence
of Chinese skill in the art of naviga-
ton, is well worthy of more than a
casual glance when visiting the Chi
neSe section in the Liberal Arts Pal
ace at the Worlds Fair.
The Chinese have records of their
navigation beyond their coasts dating
more than 5000 years ago, even be.
yond the times of Cheops and the Ar
gonauts. They have no steam vessels
of their own particular design, and all
OF their boats are propelled either by
oars, SOULS or sails The one great
popularity of the Chinese vessel, be
1t OF whatever type, is that is must
have an eye painted or carved or
either side of the bow. This is done
IN accordance with an old Chinese ira
dltion that some oVer-intrepid mari
ners set sail on a bamboo raft for an
apparently nearby shore, when a ty-
phoon or cyclone drove the craft far
out of their course, and the crew were
shore. AT a loss what to do, they
prayed to the god of the sea, who APP
peared to them in a vision and told
them that they should repair their
craft, embark again and point their
vessel toward the rising sun and set
sail. They were to proceed in easterly
direction until nlghtfall, at which time
they were to leave the navigation of
their vessel to the god of the sea, who
would furnish the boat with a pair of
eyes Wherewith to see the way. This
was all done, and at night the sailors
beheld a pair of glowing eyes, one on
either side of their craft and they
reached their destination in safety the
following day.
The overjoyed crew sent a memorial
to the Emperor relating the facts of
their miraculous escape, and the En-
peror at that time issued an impe-
rial decree, ordering that all vessels of
every description should have eyes
either painted or carved on their bows,
in order that the ships might see"
their way. Hence, the Chinamans re-
Spouse when asked to explain the rea-
son for the painted eyes on the bows
of vessels;
mot got eye; no can see"
Models of all classes of boats from
the miniature 'sampan" or wherry, to
a full-fledged sea- going junk, either for
mercantile or fighting purposes, can be
seen. The "sampan" is propelled by
scull from the stern and worked
with a peculiar side-like twist that
both serves to propel and steer the boat
at the same time. In the larger
classes of sampans oars are used in a
similar way to that on ordinary row.
| boats. There are larger lighters with
immense single SOULS. some of which
are over forty feet in length and which
are worked singly by as many as thir-
ty men at a time. These large SOULS
work on a sort of pivot, fastened To
the taff-rail of the boat and in the in
| board end is gagged to a certain mo-
ton by being held in place by a rat
tan or rawhide strap. cleated to the
deck of the vessel allowing the scull
so much play" while in action and
at the same time preventing the SOUL
itself from getting beyond the control
| of the scullers.
Warjunks, with their stink-pot mast
tops their antiquated cannon and
| blunderbusses; stately and ponderous-
looking merchantmen; snIaller-s sized
coasters; all the way down to fishing
| smacks, cargoboats, fiowerboats, house
boats, duckboats, large sampans oil
| passenger boats and catamarans are
all represented. In the city of Canton
China, over one-half of the people
live in boats and in Hong Kong about
one-third comprise the floating popu-
lation of the entire city.
The f1owerboats are so-called on ac-
count of their profuse decorations OF
flowers and are the habitations of the
singing and dancing girls of Canton
The duckboats are so termed because
they are used by the thrifty Monga-
liam to breed his ducks in, and there
is quite a f1otilla of these boats, in the
Canton waters. Each duck seems
to know its own boat, and
it is a very pretty and interesting
sight to see the ducks leave the boats
in the morning and return at night
on an inclined plank let down from
the boat to the water for that pur-
pose.