[133] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):
XV. Yonder side sea, there is a bote,
The king’s daughter of England there she sate;
An if you tell her name no man it wot
What is the maid’s name that sate in the boate.
—Her name is Anne; for in the fourth line it saith An if ye tell me her
name; but this riddle is not to be seene on the booke, but to be put
without the booke, or else it will be soone understood.
[134] Cf. Holme riddles, 234;
(111) As j went by the way j met with a boy
j took him my friend for to bee
he took of his hat an drew of his gloves
and so saluted mee.
Lincolnshire riddles (Notes and Queries 3rd series, VIII), 503:
As I was going over Westminster Brig,
I met a Westminster scholar, etc.
[135] Cf. Dorsetshire (Notes and Queries 3rd series IX), 50:
A body met a body
In a narrow lane,
Says the body to a body,
Where hast thou a-ben?
I’ve ben in my wood
A-hunting me some roe.
Then lend me thy little dog
That I may do so.
Then take it unto thee.
Tell me its name;
For twice in the riddle,
I’ve told you the same.
Holme riddles, 237:
(137) There was a king met a king, etc.
—The men’s names were King and the dog’s name was Bin.
[136] Cf. Catalan (and see notes):
CI. Dotze frares d’un convent
dotze nespras per tots tenen,
cada qual se’n menja una
y encar quedan onze nespras.
New Mexican Spanish: 152, 153.
[137] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):
XLIV. I came to a tree where were apples; I eat no apples, I gave away
no apples, nor I left no apples behinde me; and yet I eat, gave away,
and left behind me.
—Three apples. I eat, give away, and leave one apple.
Holme riddles, 237, [135].
Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Campbell), II, 419:
A man went eyeless to a tree where there were apples. He didn’t leave
apples on it, and he didn’t take apples off.
—There were two and he took one.
[138] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), 958:
As I was going to St. Ives, etc.
Lancashire (Notes and Queries, 3rd series 9:86).
Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31:71.
[139] Cf. Catalan (and see notes):
CCLIX. Un cassador surt a cassar. A dalt de un arbre hi ha quatre
aucells. Etgega un tret. Ne mata dos. Quants aucells quedan dalt del
arbre?
Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):
741. En un árbol había cien pájaros. Un cazador tiró y cayó uno muerto
al suelo. Cuántos quedaron arriba?
Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31:72.
[140] Cf. Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):
726. El zapatero y su hija,
el sastre con su mujer,
comieron de nueve huevos
y les tocaron a tres.
—La hija del zapatero era la mujer del sastre.
[141] Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):
734 (a). Pasaba un grupo de palomas por donde estaba un gavilán y el
gavilán les dijo:
—Adios mis cien palomas. Ellas le contestaron diciéndole:
—Nosotras, la mitad de nosotras, una cuarta parte de nosotras otras
tantas como nosotras y usted, señor gavilán, hecemos el ciento cabal.
Cuántas palomas irían volando?
Arabian Nights Tales [Burton, Burton Club, 5:236].
[142] Cf. Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31:63.
Argyleshire, 181:
Man, wife and sons to be ferried across.
Ibid.
Fox, goose and bag of corn.
West Highlands (Campbell), 408:
Three jealous soldiers and their wives in a boat that holds two.
Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell), 72:
Lamb, wolf and ‘bottle of hay.’
The Riddler (New Haven, 1835), 5:
Wolf, goat and cabbages.
Attributed to Alcuin, in Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria,
London, 1842, 1:74.
[143] Cf. Grimm, 94, The Peasant’s Wise Daughter:
“Then said the king, ‘Come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding,
not walking, not in the road, not out of the road, and if thou canst do
that I will marry thee.’ So she went away, put off everything she had
on, and then she was not clothed, and took a great fishing net, and
seated herself in it and wrapped it entirely round and round her, and
then she was not naked, and she hired an ass and tied the fisherman’s
net to its tail, so that it was forced to drag her along, and that was
neither riding nor walking. The ass had also to drag her in the ruts,
so that she only touched the ground with her great toe, and that was
neither being in the road nor out of the road.”
[144] Cf. “Flores” of Pseudo-Bede (III) Mod. Phil. 2:562:
Sedeo super equum non natum, cujus matrem in manu teneo.
Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):
XL. On greene grass I go
And on oaken beames I stand,
I ride on a mule that was never folde,
And I holde the damme in my hand.
Solution: It is a fole ridden on, cut out of the dammes belly, and a
bridle made of her skinne.
Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):
769. Ando en quien no fué nacido,
ni esperanza de nacer;
su madre traigo en los brazos.
Adivina lo que puede ser.
Irish Folk-lore Riddles, 70:
O’er the gravel I do travel,
On the oak I do stand,
I ride a mare that never was foaled,
And hold the bridle in my hand.
—A sailor on board ship.
See Story No. 26, p. 33.
[145] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), 93.
Irish Folk-lore Riddles, 68.
Holme riddles, 223:
(27) j have a little boy in a white cote the bigger he is the lesser he
goes.
[146] Cf. West Highlands (Campbell), 2:419:
Totaman, Totaman, little black man,
Three feet under and bonnet of wood.
Welsh-Gypsy:
Black within and black without,
Four legs an’ a iron cap.
Lincolnshire Riddles (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, VIII), page 503,
etc.
[147] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), page 92.
Irish Folk-lore Riddles: 68.
Hitly, Hatly etc.
[148] Cf. Holme riddles, 230: 232:
(82) What is that that is round as a cup yet all my lord oxen cannot
draw it up.
—A well.
Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31: 67:
Round as a well, deep as a bowl, long handle, little hole.
—A frying-pan.
Yorkshire (Notes and Queries 3rd series, 8: 325).
[149] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), 96:
CLV. Highty, tighty, paradighty clothed in green,
The king could not read it, no more could the queen;
They sent for a wise man out of the east,
Who said it had horns but wasn’t a beast.
—Holly tree.
Lancashire (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, IX), 86:
Itum Paraditum all clothed in green, etc.
—Parrot.
[150] Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31: 68.
Brown I am and much admired;
Many horses have I tired;
Tire a horse and worry a man;
Tell me this riddle if you can.
[151] Lincolnshire Riddles (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, VIII), 503:
Hickamore, ’ackamore
Sits over th’ kitchen-door,
Nothing so long, and nothing so strong
As Hickamore, ’ackamore,
Sits over th’ kitchen-door.
—A cloud.
[152] Cf. Lincolnshire Riddles (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, VIII),
503.
Canadian, Ontario, 68.
[153] Cf. Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Chambers), III.
English: New Collection, 14.
Riddler, 18, etc.
[154] Cf. Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Chambers), 108.
[155] Ascribed to Charles James Fox (1749–1806) in Modern Sphinx 17.
Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), 91.
Canadian, Ontario, 70.
[156] Cf. Canadian, Ontario, 69:
English: Fashionable Puzzler, 58:
In marble walls as white as milk,
Lined with a skin as soft as silk,
Within a fountain crystal clear,
A golden apple doth appear.
No doors there are to this strong hold,
Yet thieves break in and steal the gold.
[157] Cf. English: Puniana, 34, etc.
[158] Cf. English: New Collection, 13:
XXI. Three-fourth of a cross and a circle complete,
Two semi-circles and a perpendicular meet,
A triangle standing on two feet,
Two semi-circles and circle complete.
English: Fashionable Puzzler, 241, etc.
[159] Cf. English: Puzzles Old and New, 320:
From a number that’s odd cut off its head,
It then will even be,
Its tail, I pray, next take away,
Your mother then you’ll see.
English: Puniana, 99, etc.
[160] Cf. English: Riddler, 12.
English: Puniana, 217, etc.
[161] Cf. English: Puniana, 217.
Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):