Great ingenuity is displayed in turning every inch of space on board these small craft to advantage, and the dexterity is actually pushed so far as to find room for a tiny domestic altar.
During the day all the cookery and washing is done, and though at the latter process there is no want of little children, the temporary tenant of the boat does not suffer the least annoyance; nothing offensive meets his eye; and, at the most, he merely hears at rare intervals the whining voice of some poor little wretch.

The youngest child is generally tied on its mother's back while she steers; the elder children, too, have sometimes similar burdens, but jump and climb about without the least consideration for them.

It has often grieved me to the heart to see the head of an infant scarcely born, thrown from one side to the other with each movement of the child that was carrying it, or the sun darting so fiercely on the poor little creature, who was completely exposed to its rays, that it could hardly open its eyes.

For those who have not been themselves witnesses of the fact, it is almost impossible to form an idea of the indigence and poverty of a Chinese boat-family.
The Chinese are accused of killing numbers of their new-born or weakly children.

They are said to suffocate them immediately after their birth, and then throw them into the river, or expose them in the streets--by far the most horrible proceeding of the two, on account of the number of swine and houseless dogs, who fall upon, and voraciously devour, their prey.