Cumming, C.F. Gordon, "Christmas in Calcutta", 
_Belgravia_, 52:180 (December 1883):
"Here as elsewhere, the value of everything depends on the difficulty
of procuring it, therefore a recherche' dessert generally includes grapes--
not the beautiful well-grown bunches of our hothouses, still covered with
purple bloom and shaded by their own fresh leaves; but single grapes,
generally, if not invariably, white, sold in circular boxes like French
plums.  They are cut from the bunch, and packed between layers of cotton-wool
to exclude the air, and thus they are brought, with other stores of dried
fruits, apples, and pomegranates, from the far away mountains of
Caubul seven hundred miles distant, by Caubulee or Affghan merchants;
fine men, but the wildest, weirdest-looking beings you can imagine,
the very strangest contrast to the smooth-shaven natives of the plains.
They pitch their camp outside some city, where they find ready sale for
their herds of strong sure-footed ponies, as also for their Persian
kittens, lovely, silky creatures of every colour, with great bushy tails."