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FAMOUS CONUNDRUMS AND PUZZLES.
The following riddle was once supposed to
be insolvable :
When from the Ark's capacious round
The world came forth in pairs,
Who was it that first heard the sound
Of boots upon the stairs ?
Archbishop Whately offered five pounds to
anyone who should solve it, and a German
professor, in response to the offer set to work
and wrote a most elaborate answer to it.
Finally, however, it was supposed to be un-
answerable. This is the solution :
To him who cons the matter o'er
A little thought reveals
He heard it first who went before
Two pairs of soles and eels.
Here is a good riddle eminently remark-
able for ingenuity. It is the sighing riddle>
and was vastly admired by Dr. Whewell :
Ü 0 a 0, but LO thee.
O 0 no 0, but O 0 me;
Then let not my 0 a 0 go,
But give 0 0 10 thee so.
The explanation of it is :
j You sigh for a cipher, but I sigh for thee,
I O sigh for no cypher, but O sigh for me ;
Then let not my sigh for a cypher go,
But give sigh for sigh, for I sigh for thee] so
This is clever :
If the B m t, put :
If the B . putting :
But is easily explained :
If the grate be empty, put coal on ;
If the grate be full, stop putting coal on.
Not less ingenious than the proceeding is
the following :
Stand take to takings
I yon throw my,
.which is another form of :
I understand you undertake
To overthrow my undertakings.
Here are one or two anagrams which I hav*
come across lately which are happy, and de*
serve to be famous if they are not so. " As-
tronomers" are described as " moon-starers";
" telegraphs " as " great helps "; " Old Eng-
land " is characterised as " golden land,"
and " Parliament" said to be made up of
"partial men."
A popular puzzle in England, a hundred
years ago, ran as follows :
To three-fourths of a cross add a circle com-
plete;
Let two semi-circles a perpendicular meet ;
Next add a triangle that stands on two feet ;
Then two semi-circles and a circle complete.
The answer to this is to be found in the word
-TOBACCO. _
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