Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/14

 night, and thus let some fresh air into the darkened cells in which they were condemned to live.

The object of the council in making this extraordinary rule, was to secure a good market for their palm oil, by making it necessary that it should be burnt all through the day. If they had heard as much about free trade as we have in England, they would have been able to prove most effectually that to exclude the light of the sun from Srimat dwellings was simply to protect native industry. The council owned the palm trees; palm oil was made, by their rule about the windows, a first necessary of life. Two-thirds of the Srimats found their constant occupation in tending the trees and preparing the oil. In return for the oil which they necessarily consumed, the Srimats gave to their chiefs the best of everything that they possessed. The oil sometimes ran short; then what competition and strife there was among the different families of the tribe to see which could give the most costly presents to the chiefs in exchange for the sacred oil.