down from the top of the steps to the vaults below. They used at the
same time to bring American apples which were greatly appreciated as
there were none grown in India at that time.

ILLUMINANTS.

To the present generation it would no doubt appear strange and
particularly inconvenient had they to rely solely for their lighting
power on coconut oil. It had many drawbacks, two of which, and not the
least, being the great temptation it afforded Gungadeen, the Hindu
farash bearer, to annex for his own individual daily requirements a
certain percentage of his master's supply, and to the delay in
lighting the lamps in the cold weather owing to the congealment of the
oil which had to undergo a process of thawing before it could be
used. Gas had been introduced some years previously, but it was
confined to the lighting of the streets and public buildings. Of the
days that I am writing about, and for long years afterwards, coconut
oil was the one and only source from which we derived our artificial
lighting, and it was not until the early seventies that a change came
over the spirit of the dream by the introduction of kerosine oil.

[Illustration: _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann_ Old premises of Ranken
& Co.]

[Illustration: _Photo, by_ Present premises of Ranken & Co.]

This of course made a most wonderful and striking change in the
economy of life in more ways than one, and amongst others it brought
about at once and for ever the abdication of the tyrannical sway and
cessation of the depredations of the aforesaid Gungadeen who had no