sea-shells

The edging of sea-shells along the Virgin's cloak is partially inspired by Clarke's work, and also refers specifically to St. Bernard's devotion to the Virgin as Star of the Sea; the saint is thought to be the first to have invoked the Virgin under this title.

New Illustration: The St. Bernard Triptych, Part I 2009

One looks like a proto-Egyptian scarab, two look like vulva or sea-shells that were used for currency and also represented the female genetalia, and one looks like a hand tool, maybe an axe or an awl.

Archive 2008-10-01 Jan 2008

One looks like a proto-Egyptian scarab, two look like vulva or sea-shells that were used for currency and also represented the female genetalia, and one looks like a hand tool, maybe an axe or an awl.

Tomb Full of Phallic Figures??? Jan 2008

The oldest decorative sea-shells ever found, dating back 82,000 years, have been discovered in a cave in Morocco, a local expert said Tuesday.

ANC Daily News Briefing 2007

Then all at once he became a corsair, investing himself with the terrible poetry that Lara has given to the part: the thought came at the sight of the mother-of-pearl tints of a myriad sea-shells, and grew as he saw madrepores redolent of the sea-weeds and the storms of the Atlantic.

The Magic Skin 2007

We learn also that these changes have taken place at a comparatively recent epoch, for the surface of the coral has scarcely suffered from the action of the weather, and hundreds of sea-shells, exactly resembling those still found upon the beach, and many of them retaining their gloss and even their colour, are scattered over the surface of the island to near its summit.

The Malay Archipelago 2004

Another curious feature of the jungle here was the multitude of sea-shells everywhere met with on the ground and high up on the branches and foliage, all inhabited by hermit-crabs, who forsake the beach to wander in the forest.

The Malay Archipelago 2004

Like curved sea-shells dyed by the azure depths 140

The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley 2003

One had a car of ebony, drawn by white pigeons, another was lying back in her ivory chariot, driving ten black crows, while the rest had chosen rare woods or many-coloured sea-shells, with scarlet and blue macaws, long-tailed peacocks, or green love-birds for horses.

The Orange Fairy Book 2003

In its hardness and translucency -- in its polish, equal to that of the finest oliva-shell -- in the bad smell given out, and loss of colour under the blowpipe -- it shows a close similarity with living sea-shells.

Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle 2003