Note 13 — Chapter IV · The World-wide Search for Wealth
Reading edition
Chinese emperors, like the Egyptian Pharaohs, had dragon boats which were used in connection with religious rain-getting ceremonies. They had also the bird boats called “yih”. Mr. Wells Williams refers to the yih as “a kind of sea-bird that flies high, whose figure is gaily painted on the sterns of junks, to denote their swift sailing”. He adds that “the descriptions are contradictory, but its picture rudely resembles a heron”.13