OLIVES. 147 
furnish the accompaniment. But I hear my 
own little Sea-Maiden calling me.” 
And Miss Bremely was gone. 
Oliva scripta, which the doctor had selected 
as best illustrating his idea of an ancient tablet 
or epistle from the royal Oceanus to his well- 
beloved Queen Tethys, was delicate enough to 
have been indeed a gift from a sea king to the 
most lovely nymph either of the ocean or the 
earth. This shell was over an inch in length, 
shining as if polished by the jewel makers of 
the deep. Its delicate fawn-colored surface, 
suffused with soft shadings of brown, was writ- 
ten over in fine zigzag lines of a pale chestnut 
tint, bearing also in stronger drawn _hiero- 
glyphic figures what seemed as if they might 
be words or sentences to be emphasized; and 
these oft repeated were the markings which 
the doctor had ingeniously rendered into ex- 
pressions of endearment, while just above the 
aperture of the shell, which was a mingling of 
the blue tint of the waves and the soft white- 
ness of pearls, a strongly marked inscription he 
affirmed to be the royal signature and seal. 
The name given this Olive—seripta— 
showed that others before had recognized in 
its curious and delicate markings a resemblance 
to writing. 
