PALINDROMES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 9 May 1925, Page 16

PALINDROMES.

There is a certain kind of sentence known as a palindrome, a word that means “running back again.” The particular kind of sentence to which this curious .name is given is - one tiiat can be read backwards as well as forward, and will the the same either way;' the letters run back again in the same order as they, run forward. Of course, it is fairly easy to make sentences which read 'backward or forward if we consider only words, hut in a palindrome we must read the sentence backward letter by letter. A very good game for an evening when we* cannot go out, and need some quiet recreation that will enable us to sit round the fire, is to try to make up some palindromes. Perhaps the best known of all such sentences are these two, the first being Adam’s suxiposed remark to Eve: Madam, I’m Adam; and the second, Napoleon’s statement: Able was I ere I saw Elba. But many other sentences can lie made xip to read backward and forward alike. Repel evil as a live leper. Egad, a. base tone denotes a bad age. Red root put up to order. (This is a reference to a beetroot) Put it up but, not on tub, put- it up. Stop, Rose, 1 prefer pies or pots. Draw no dray a yard onward. In building up such sentences we must, of course, work from the beginning and end at the same time —that is, directly we have chosen a first word we must wriete it backward at the end of the sentence; then a second word is treated in the same way, being reversed and pdaoed as the second from the end. In this way we can see if our sentence is making sense as we go along. The best- way to begin building up a palindrome is to get a good number of palindrome words, such as madam, level, noon, and so on. These give a good foundation to use with other words that are not' palindromes, but. make true words when reversed, such, for example, as was, saw, den, Ned; ton not; and others. [lf you can work. out a good sentence, send it along to the Castle. — S.Q.]