Some Unanswered Riddles.

Otago Witness, Issue 2087, 22 February 1894, Page 37

Some Unanswered Riddles.

People nowadays do not take riddles bo Berioualy as did old Homer, who is reported to have died of sheer vexation at being unable to solve the enigma propounded to him by some fishermen whom he had asked if they had caught anything: "What we catch we leave, whatwe failta catch we carry away" ; theanswertothisapparentljr simple conundrum which baffled the genius of tho poet blind yet bold being "Fleas." A witticism, which, in its harmless vulgarity, might have emanated from the German joker of to-day. There are, we fancy many riddles knocking about the world to which no answer has as yet been found, or to which the answer has perhaps been lost. In the "Memoirß of Hannah More" a witty saying is quoted of Mrs Montague to the effect that metaphysical researches put her in mind of the old riddle : " A roomful, and a houseful, but nobody can catch a handful." Is the answer to this riddle extant ? It was to his serious-minded friend, J ohn Newton, that the poet Cowper propounded the following of his own inventing :— I am just two and two ; I am warm, I am cold, And the parent of numbers that cannot bo told ; I am lawful, uulawful, a duty, a fault : I am often Bold dear, good for nothing whoa bought ; An extraordinary boon, and a matter of course, And yielded with pleasure— whon taken by force. On another occasion he sought to puzzle the brains of a correapondent with the sphinx-like query, which ha recommended 1 hin>, should ho solve it, to propose to the company on the approaching celebration of his nuptials ;— "What are they which stand at a distance from each other, and meet without ever moving?" And yet again he opens a letter with the startling conundrum :— Say what is the thing by my riddle designed, Which you carried to London, and yet left behind ? The melancholy bard of Olney would almost seem to have rivalled in his riddling propensitiesthe Frenchman who was so addicted to the practice that to his most commonplace remark some enigmatical character would often be attached, so that on his asking a like-spirited' acquaintance once for some spinach at dinner, hewas met with tho bewildered response, "Pardon, monsieur, but this time you have completely puzzled me." The French have loDg been famous for their riddles, butit was an English family who lived in such an atmosphere of puzzledom that ou the husband inquiring, in excited accents, of his wife : " Why is that door always left open ? " she took on a reilective air, and, after a raomeut'a musing, answered : " I give it up ! " The following pretty specimen of the poetriddler Praed is quoted by Miss Mitford, in her "Recollections," with the remark: "Th_i3 charade is still a mystery to me. Solve it, fair readers." Whether it ever was solved wo are unaware. Sir Hillary charged at Agincourt r Sooth, 'twas an awful day ! And though in that old age of sport' The rufflers of the camp and courtHad little time to pray, 'Tis said Sir Hillary muttered there Two syllables by way of prayer. My first to all the brave and proud Who see to-morrow's sun ; My next, with her cold and quiet cloud r To those who find their dewy shroud Before to-day's be done ; And both together to all blue eyes That weep when a warrior nobly dies.