An interesting bit of dialogue appears on a B.F. vase,[2189] which represents boys and men watching a swallow, evidently the first of the returning spring; one boy says, ἰδοὺ χελιδών, “See, the swallow”; to which a man replies, νὴ τὸν Ἡρακλέα, “Yes, by Herakles!” Another boy joins in with αὑτηί, “There she is,” and ἔαρ ἤδη, “It is already spring.” Another good instance is on a B.F. vase in the Vatican.[2190] On one side we see the proprietor of an olive garden extracting oil from the olives, with the prayer, [ΟΖΕΥΠΑΤΕΡΑΙΘΕΠΛΟΥΣΙΟΣΓΕΝ] ὦ Ζεῦ πάτερ, αἴθε πλούσιος γέν[οιμ’ ἄν, “O Father Zeus, may I be rich!” while on the other he sits over a full vessel, and cries to the purchaser, [ΕΔΕΜΕΝΕΔΕ ΠΛΕΟΙ ΠΑΡΒΕΒΑΚΕΝ], ἤδη μέν, ἤδη πλέο(ν) παρβέβακεν, “Already, already it has gone far beyond my needs.”[2191] To conclude with a few miscellaneous and unique inscriptions, we have firstly, on a vase in the British Museum (E 298), a tripod, on the base of which are the words Ἀκαμαντὶς ἐνίκα φυλή, showing that it is intended for a monument in honour of a choragic victory, with the name of the victorious tribe. On a sepulchral stele on a B.F. funeral amphora at Athens[2192] are the words (now nearly obliterated) ἀνδρὸς ἀπ[οφθιμ]ένοιο ῥάκ[ος] κα[κ]ὸν [ἐν]θάδε κεῖμα[ι, “Here lie I, a vile rag of a dead man.” Similarly, on a sepulchral plaque at Athens are the words, [SÊMATODESTIN : AREIOU], “This is the grave of Areios.”[2193] In a representation of Sappho reading from her poems, she holds an open roll, on which are visible the words Θεοί, ἠερίων ἐπἐων ἄρχομαι ἄλλ[ων] ... ἔπεα πτερόεντα[2194]; and in the well-known school-scene on the Duris vase in Berlin[2195] a teacher holds a roll, on which are the words (in Aeolic dialect, and combined from the openings of two distinct hymns): [ΜΟΙΣΑΜΟΙ] Μοῖσά μοι [ΑΦΙΣΚΑΜΑΝΔΡΟΝ] ἀ(μ)φὶ Σκάμανδρον [ΕΥΡΩΝΑΡΧΟΜΑΙ] ἐύρ(ρ)ων ἄρχομαι [ΑΕΙΝΔΕΝ] ἀεί<ν>δειν.[2196] A small fragment of a red-figure kylix (?) of fine style, found at Naukratis in 1899 (and now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford),[2197] has a similar scene of a dictation lesson. A seated figure unrolls an inscribed scroll, on which is the _boustrophedon_ legend, στησίχορον ὕμνον ἄγοισαι, while another figure, of which the right hand alone remains, is writing on a tablet (Fig. 177). [Illustration: FIG. 177. FIGURE WITH INSCRIBED SCROLL.] In a very puzzling scene on a R.F. vase of fine style, generally supposed to have some reference to the Argonautic expedition, one figure holds up an object inscribed with the name [ΣΙΣΥΦΟΣ].[2198] This object has generally been interpreted as a _tessera hospitalis_, or “letter of introduction,” as we should say.