DUCK. 



provide them an old Jlep-mother, who leads them where they are 

 to find provender for themfelves ; being firft put on board zfam- 

 pane or beat, which is deftined for their habitation, and from 

 which the whole flock, often to the amount of three or four 

 hundred, go out to feed, and return at command. This method 

 is ufed nine months out of the twelve (for in the colder months 

 it does not fucceed), and is fo far from a novelty, that it may be 

 every where feen ; but more efpecially about the time of cutting 

 the rice and gleaning the crop, when the matters of the Duck 

 fampanes row up and down the river according to the opportu- 

 nity of procuring food, which is found in plenty, at the tide of 

 ebb, on the rice plantations, as they are overflowed at high water. 

 It is curious to fee how the Ducks obey their mailer ; for fome 

 thoujands, belonging to different boats, will feed at large on the 

 fame fpotj and on a fignal given will follow their leader to their 

 refpe&ive fampanes, without a ftranger being found among them *'. 

 This is ftill more extraordinary, if we confider the number of in- 

 habited fampanes f on the Tigris, fuppofed to be no lefs than 

 forty thoufand, which are moored in rows clofe to each other,, 

 with a narrow paflage at intervals for boats to pafs up and down 

 the river. The Tigris, at Canton, is fomewhat wider than the 

 Thames at London, and the whole river is there covered in this 

 manner for the extent of at leaft a mile \. 



* This l have heard feveral affirm. It is likewife mentioned by many au- 

 thors, among which fee OJi. Vty. i. p. 194 — "toreen Foy. ii. p. 255. 



f Sampane is :he common name for a boat ; the inhabited ones contain each a 

 feparate family, of which it is the only dwelling; and very many of the Chinefe- 

 pafs almoft their whole lives on the water. 



% Coot's laji Voy. vol. iii. p. 433, 



We 



493 



