THE CAPTAIN AND HIS REW AND PASSENGERS.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 450, 20 June 1871, Page 2

THE CAPTAIN AND HIS REW AND PASSENGERS.

(FROM THE QUEEN.) A puzzle was lately proposed or mired after in connection with, the two line— From numbers, aid and art, Kever will fame depart. The following explanation will perls be intelligible:—A captain is supposed xhave on board his ship 30 men, of whom 15 acrew and 15 passengers. In consequence I provisions failing, {it is resolved to throw If the whole number overboad. How can v. ■be done so as to save all the crew and to I the passengers go? After mature delibelion, the men are brought and placed in attain order, according to the numbers present by the vowels in the foregoing distich. I=4, so let four of the crew stand in a line ; so let five of the passengers take their fees in continuation; E= 2, so send in t|of the crew ; A= l, so add one passenger t = 3, so add three men ; A=l, so add anier passenger ; A=l, so send up another ofhe men ; E=2, so send up two passenjk ; E= 2, so send up two men ; A=l, senchp another passenger ; E=2, send in two ire men ; E=2, send in two more passen^ ; A=l, send in the last of your men. 1 Passengers and crew are now arrasd thus :—

I I I ittttt I It I I it ifti ittt itrn Here the upright strokes represent tnte In you wish to save, and the crosses - the I. lowers of Jonah. Begin and count one, t! three, &c., on to nine, and you will find % a cross, which is cancelled. Continue k same process, and the second number ife will be a cross ; cancel this, and go on [ third time, and you will find your ninth m bears his cross, and must be cancelled. ~% have now come to the end of liie row witll three, so begin where you lbffc off— "ol two, three"—then back to the beginning your line, and count on " four, five," &c, 1 nine, which is a cross, and goes overboa» In this way you are to proceed until evel cross is cancelled, which will happen, if ye go on correctly, without touching one of tho; whom you mean to keep. Instead of mark: cards or counters may be used. The experiment may be tried in a pompanj where as many as thirty persons are presenti and some one to conduct the process. Al| lowing each fifteen to bear a distinctive badge, and calling them respectively Turks and Christians, or Jews and Turks, or passes gers and crew, or whatever you will, you may throw overboard— i. c., send out of the line or circle—everyone whom it is your intention to send out. If the general company are not let into the secret of the solution before the game begins, the effect will be thatof mystery; and certainly it is one of the cleverest, as it one of the most celebrated, puzzles ever invented. The Jews use a Hebrew sentence, the initial letters in which give precisely the same results as the vowels in the English distich. It is necessary in all cases to begin with four of those who are to be preserved. A correspondent sends us the following companion to this puzzle:—A schoolboy on a visit to a good-natured uncle was requested by him to take half the fruit on the table consisted of 15 apples ancl 15 oranges. The nephew was about to take all the oranges but the old gentleman objected to this unless he could arrange all the fruit in a circle in such a manner that every ninth article would be an orange. The clever youth won all the oranges by placing the fruit according to the order of the vowels in the following line from Virgil:— 45 21 31 12 231221 JPopuleam virgam mater regina f erebat. He commenced with apples, and placed four of them becaiise o is the fourth vowel, then five oranges because v is the fifth vowel, then two apples because c is the second vowel, then one orange because ais the first vowel, and so on right through, as will be easily seen by a glance at the figures placed over the vowels in the above Latin quotation. Many other sentences may be made use of besides this one and the one in the Queen, for instance: — Our earth's final fate—enigma ever dark. And again, Our dear Richard's tale begins at the sea ; The arrangement of the vowels in all four cases is similar. The trick or puzzle is best performed with cards ; 15 black, and 15 red being used to denote either Turks and Chris tians, passengers and crew, or apples and .oranges.1