It is one of those splendid sights which we can never see
on earth. The walls and the ceiling of the large ball-room were of
thick, but transparent crystal. May hundreds of colossal shells,
some of a deep red, others of a grass green, stood on each side in
rows, with blue fire in them, which lighted up the whole saloon,
and shone through the walls, so that the sea was also illuminated.
Innumerable fishes, great and small, swam past the crystal walls;
on some of them the scales glowed with a purple brilliancy, and on
others they shone like silver and gold. Through the halls flowed a
broad stream, and in it danced the mermen and the mermaids to the
music of their own sweet singing. No one on earth has such a lovely
voice as theirs. The little mermaid sang more sweetly than them
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