Chai Ark or Water Duck (Khaki Campbell)

The female chai ark costs RM19.00 per head, already dressed at the Miri Poultry Market. It is not every day one can find a female chai ark.

The Foochows buy the female chai ark to make a nourishing soup (steamed)  to help a child who has had chicken pox or false Germany measles to get his energy back. Fever and the pox can be very debilitating and many children have remain thin and under nourished for months after the illness. Besides, the duck soup can also take away all the heat gathered in the body due to the illness.




German measles was a feared illness in the past and mothers would be so desperate to get a cure in the village especially. If the fever was not contained, it could lead to brain damage.

(Signs of measles - high fever, pink to red rashes on body, especially palms and soles. )

(Usually pregnant women did not go near children with  German measles or rubella which causes birth defects.)

German measles or rubella was not really feared but still the children suffering from it would have a high fever and the normal treatment was to give them coconut water, sugar cane juice, water chesternuts, and other cooling drinks to lower the temperature.

Foochow women in my opinion actually had a great deal of knowledge about cures and illnesses in those days. They were as good as any barefoot doctors.