ABSTRACT
About a hundred and fifty years ago, during the Napoleonic wars, an English merchant residing in the Canton factories gave an order for a book of watercolours, executed by a Chinese artist, depicting all phases of native life from the artisan to the official. One of the drawings represented the boy with the Dragon Boat. He is poorly dressed in a pale blue jacket over a rather ragged gown, and slung round his neck are a gong and a drum. The boat is an extremely elaborate model with a blue hull given a scaly effect with white lines. The head is decorated with a red beard and the tail consists of green feathers. The rowers all wear conical red hats, and three officials are on the upper deck, the leader sheltered by a red umbrella. There is a pencil note by the owner of the album who was under the impression that the boy was an ordinary beggar but, though he expected some return for his talismanic model, he could no more be classed as a mendicant than the carol singers at Christmas. A copy of the \\'atercolour is reproduced in black and white.
