Crossword-Solution: TANKIA 6 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 10

The _tankia_, or boat-people, at Canton form a class in some respects beneath the other portions of the community, and have many customs peculiar to themselves.

The _tankia_ came from some of the Miaotsz’ tribes so early that their origin is unknown.[228] The modern classifications of the people, recognized, however, more by law than custom, are various and comprehensive.

The smaller sorts at Canton are generally known as _tankia_ boats; they are about twenty-five feet long, contain only one room, and are fitted with moveable mats to cover the whole vessel; they are usually rowed by women.

Throughout the southern rivers all small craft, tankia-boats, and lighters are beached and turned inside out for a scrubbing.

Now a tankia glided by, with only a bamboo canopy as protection from rain and sun and cold, the mother at the helm, while around her clustered happy children who had never known any other home than this little "egg house." For so great is the population of China that many families live in boats upon the rivers, and have but little knowledge of mother earth, as they but seldom feel the ground beneath their feet.