Chapter I: S I S

S I D E
I D E A
S E A T

243

The European rivers concealed in the eight anagrams: Set in red robe Henri Le Roi O sell me red pine nerves biter, are Dniester, Ebro, Rhine, Loire, Moselle, Dnieper, Severn, Tiber.

244

The palindrome runs thus--

STOP ROSE, I PREFER PIES OR POTS.

245

“Your food will cost you more!”

is the political parrot cry which can be evolved by anagram from--

_O fool! O musty cry! O lurid woe!_

246

Sir Robert Peel was the statesman from whose name a “terrible poser” is formed by anagram.

247

The letters of the sentence, “Yea, a glad sun rose red” can be recast into the well-known proverb _Delays are dangerous_.

248

The question, “Has there been a poet of unusual solemnity?” is answered by “_Yes, Milton_.”

249

The anagram enigma--

No, no, I hardly ever touch
The thing which many love so much,
It has a place within these lines,
But is taboo where Delia dines.

is solved by _Onion_ (no, no, I).

250

When young Biceps, who had been plucked in Euclid declared that he could teach the examiners how to square a circle, this was his tricky method:--A circle may be aptly described as a “copper” or “Brown.” Having at hand your “copper” (P. C. Brown), when he has caught you on his rounds, proceed to square him in the customary way.

251

As Biceps could not tell how to extract a circle from a square, his friend gave him the following solution: “Let the given square be Sloane Square; find the Inner Circle, and take its lines to any point, at any distance from that square, paying the proper fare. That’s the ticket!”

252

Every _Cretan_ is said to lie,
And steeds that _canter_ pant.
The gods drank _nectar_, old and dry,
And all men may _recant_.
Finally this key extend
Take from _en(trance)d_ the _end_.

253

The charade--

My captive _second_, sulking in my _first_,
Might surlily bemoan his fate accurst;
Bemoan, or as alternative you find
My _whole_ the word that fits his state of mind.
For meet enclosure, you can take a score
Of captive _seconds_, first deducting four.

is solved by _Denounce_ (16 ozs. = 1 _Pound_).

254

The cipher--

~THGLBDWNWSLLLDSTFTHLT;
MNFTNRDRNRGTNNTHSPT.~

becomes by the addition of E and O alternately--

The “Globe” do we now sell, oldest of the lot;
Men often order one, or get one on the spot.

255

When his brother put “Tim in a pet,” the explanation by anagram is that he was _impatient_.

256

Who knows the _East_ a land may know
Famed for its _teas_, and long age
A _seat_ of sage and seer.
The native there, so full of tricks,
To _sate_ his hunger _eats_ with sticks,
Nor knows his ways are queer.

The missing words are in italics.

257

The charade--

If doubled you would see my first
Let third and second be reversed.
But if my last you would behold
Increase my first a hundredfold.
Combine them all, and you can trace
The four within an empty space.

is solved by _Void_.

258

In the words spoken in the hay-field to a thirsty toiler, “Mower, I will tap the cask!” are concealed by anagram the poet and his poem--_William Cowper, The task._

259

The charade--

My _first_ is small, and seldom reverential;
My next not large enough to heed or prize;
My _whole_ is altogether consequential;
My third though small is counted very wise--

is solved by _Important_.

260

To be
a a a a a a a a a a
t C r I i O f U l S e s
standing
is the mark of a mean

is solved by _To be tenacious in the midst of trifles is the mark of a mean understanding_.

261

The letters which spell RED NUTS AND GIN can be recast to form the one word UNDERSTANDING.

262

The novel by Charles Dickens hidden in the pied letters--

~CDEHHIILOOOPRSSTTUY~

is _The Old Curiosity Shop_.

263

In swift _relays_ the beaters add
Fresh _layers_ to the heaps of slain;
And still, with lust of slaughter mad,
The _slayer_ plies his hand amain!

The words in italics have the same six letters.

264

The charade--

My first is nothing but a name,
My second still more small,
My whole shows such a lack of fame
It has no name at all.

is solved by _Nameless_.

265

When one of the children said, “If father gives us a new dog it will wake the lazy ones”--the words pointed to Susan and Ethel, whose names are buried in the sentence.

266

The cipher--

~NGOTRDSREAOHR
ETNSVEENUDOEO~

is solved by starting with last letter of the second line, followed by the first letter of the first line, and so on throughout, taking always the last and first unused letters alternately, and forming thus the proverb “_One good turn deserves another!_”

267

The enigma--

Well known by story, not by name,
I died a death unknown before,
Nor ever to corruption came;
My shroud the waves cast on the shore.

is solved by _Lot’s wife_.

268

The question--

How might an oyster, if it could speak and knew that unda is Latin for
wave or water, complain in similar phonetic iteration when disturbed
by thunder under unda?

is answered thus--

He could exclaim, “a noise annoys an oyster!”

269

The words in italics have the same five letters--

When _Cesar_, our puppy, sets out for a run,
Over _acres_ he _races_, all frolic and fun.
For no whistle _cares_ he, in his desperate hurry,
The slow sheep to _scare_, and the old cow to worry.

270

The girls’ names shown by anagram in the sentence--“Bad hero set by thy door hurt me ma. Army may get ruder daily,” are Deborah, Betsy, Dorothy, Ruth, Emma, Mary, Amy, Gertrude, Lydia.

271

The anagram is completed thus--

“Lord Beaconsfield’s statue.”
_True as old Ben’s stolid face!_

272

The Shakespeare anagrams--

The tub sold has old rough shelves.
And e’en this fisherman caught best white smelts.
A living lord’s black dress, worn high, I vow!

are formed, letter for letter and line for line, from this passage in “Romeo and Juliet”--

“Love’s heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams,
Driving black shadows over low’ring hills.”

273

The mystical gnome never flinches from toil
Who _buries_ the _rubies_ in Orient soil;
Yet _busier_ mortals will ever abound,
Who _bruise_ all the soil till the treasure is found.

The words in italics are spelt with the same six letters.

274

The Puzzle acrostic--

My feathered first has wings and sings,
Unfledged my second swings its wings;
My third on blackest pinions flies,
My fourth can float beneath the skies.
The letters to my first that fall
Are the initials of them all.

is solved thus--

O O O O L A R K
O ● ● ● A R M Y
O ● ● ● R O O K
O ● ● ● K I T E

275

My first was of the _pirate_ breed,
Their _irate_ captain, hot and riled,
To _rate_ his men found vain indeed,
They only _ate_ and smoked, and smiled!

One letter is dropped each time.

276

In the doublets puzzle HARE is made into SOUP by the following six links, changing one letter each time, and preserving their order--

HARE, hark, hack, sack, sock, soak, soap, SOUP.

277

The enigma--

Putting two small beasts that you take
To the beginning of an end,
A pointed weapon you will make
To wound a foe or praise a friend.

is solved by _Epigram_.

278

If a “newspaper” could speak, it might say by anagram of the general work of its staff, _We pen pars_.

279

The positive quantity 1011 is turned into a negative thus:--

NO.

280

The one word formed by anagram from “O, I’m man’s trial” is _Matrimonials_.

281

The rebus--

EEE and xxx URXXI XXX and eee.

is solved by “Great ease and small crosses before you are twenty-one, great crosses and little ease after that.”

282

The answer to the riddle “Why may not the owner of a pine forest fell his timber?” is--Because no one is allowed to _cut_ when it is his own _deal_.

283

He _aspired_ to be _praised_ as a wonderful shot,
But he potted the dog, and _despair_ was his lot!

The words in italics are spelt with the same letters.

284

In the doublet, as solved by Lewis Carroll, ARMY is changed into NAVY with seven links, and preserving the sequence while changing a letter every time--thus: ARMY, arms, aims, dims, dams, dame, name, nave, NAVY.

285

The anagram puzzle--

‘I excel not by a pun’
Turn these six words into one!

is solved by _Unexceptionably_, which contains exactly the same letters.

286

The answer to the strange riddle, “When is an onion like music?” is “_When you find it smell odious!_” (it’s melodious).

287

The bitter cry of Christianity is, by its anagram: _I cry that I sin_.

288

That a Conservative is constant to his cause is shown by the anagram: _Not vice versâ_.

289

As a rule Christmas Day and New Year’s Day fall upon the same day of the week, but they will not fall upon the same day of the week in 1910 (or indeed in any year), because the New Year’s Day must be _after_ the Christmas Day to fulfil the conditions!

290

“War is a game which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at,” wrote the poet’s pen;
But in war’s issue will be staked the prize,
While kings and subjects are but erring men;
So Britain--native empress of the seas--
On ocean cradled, by her storm-king nursed--
Friend of the fallen, guardian of the free,
Rests on her well-tried _last_ and trusty _first_.
Her _first_ alone can well maintain her right,
Unscathed by any threat or mutinous blast;
And though, when needed, foremost in the fight,
Her _first_ (strange paradox!) is always _last_!
But should the tide of war approach the shore
And threaten to engulf her island seat,
My _whole_, replying with defiant roar,
Would crash the audacious foe beneath her feet!

is solved by _Armstrong_.

291

My first is flogged to make it move the faster,
And turns at once to satisfy its master.
My next will ripen as a pleasant fruit,
For those whose simple taste its flavours suit.
My whole, when breezes blow and pennons fly,
Stands up aloft and points us to the sky.

is solved by _Top-mast_.

292

A noun there is, of plural number,
In daily use from here to Humber.
Now almost any noun you take
By adding “S” you plural make;
But if you add an “S” to this,
Strange is the metamorphosis!
Plural is plural now no more;
Useless what useful was before.

is solved by _Needles_, _needless_.

293

First, a semi-circle make,
Add to this another
Figure of two little lines
Meeting with each other;
Then a perfect circle form,
Truly, neat, compactly,
Add another form to these,
Like the first exactly;
Then, to make it all complete,
Form a kind of angle,
With a straight line, that should meet
In a kind of tangle;
When you this have rightly done
(’Tis the truth I’m telling),
You will get an article
Useful in a dwelling:
Should you this decapitate,
You may have another
Article, which, in its place,
Is useful as the other.

is solved by _Clock_, _lock_.

294

Veiling the leas, my first may steep
Late autumn’s listless air;
And with my tainting second creep
On idle spade and share.

When happy days link soul to soul,
And sunny faces shine,
May both combined, a subtle whole,
Be far from me and mine!

is solved by _Mistrust_.

295

Mark Lemon’s charade--

Old Charlie Brown, who a big rogue was reckoned,
Was brought up at my first for making my second;
He was fined, and because he no money would pay
Had to work with my whole on the King’s highway.

is solved by _Barrow_.

296

Complete, I grow within a field
And pleasant pasture often yield;
Behead me once, a suitor then
Is quickly brought before your ken;
Behead again, I am a word
That on the cricket-ground is heard.
Restore my heads, cut off my tail,
To name a spice you’ll not then fail;
Behead me now, and you will find
The master passion left behind.
Put on my head, my tail restore,
Complete me as I was before,
My second letter take away,
An envelope I am, you’ll say;
But now curtail me just once more,
I am an inlet on the shore.

is solved by _Clover_, _lover_, _over_, _clove_, _love_, _cover_, _cove_.

297

My _second_ is double my _first_,
My _first_ is but half of my _second_;
And I’m sure you’ll admit that my _whole_
Is ten times the latter when reckon’d.

is solved by _Ten score_.

298

My _first_ I went the other day,
And pretty surely reckon’d
A basket of fine fish to catch,
With hook and rod and _second_.

But I was out in reckoning;
A very pretty she
Of her fair face show’d just my _whole_--
And pretty soon hook’d _me_.

is solved by _Outline_.

299

Of mirth the parent, though the child of art,
A stranger to myself in every part;
Each India has a native in my breast,
The West my sweetness, and my fire the East.
While milder climes my virtue to complete,
Quicken my softness, and correct my heat;
My dearest friends upon my vitals prey,
And as they see me sinking, grow more gay.

is solved by _Punch_.

300

When my whole takes a flight in the air you will find
That my next is not left a great distance behind;
But join them together, and plain to your view
It all is as firm and as tight as a screw.

is solved by _Dovetail_.

301

To three-fourths of a cross, add a circle complete;
Then, let two semi-circles a perpendicular meet;
Next, add a triangle that stands on two feet;
Then, two semi-circles, and a circle complete.

is solved by _Tobacco_.

302

Leader of Vandals and of vice
My head is reckoned;
A Turkish captain will suffice
To be my second.
My third is firm if well selected;
My whole a wanderer neglected.

is solved by _Vagabond_.

303

One thousand, two hundred,
Nothing, and one,
Transposed, give a word
Expressive of fun.

is solved by COMIC.

304

Praed’s charade--

My _first_ was creeping on his way
Through the mists of a dull October day,
When a minstrel came to its muddy bed,
With a harp on his shoulder, a wreath on his head;
“And how shall I reach,” the poor boy cried,
“To the courts and the cloisters on t’other side?”

Old Euclid came, and he frown’d a frown,
And he dash’d the harp and the garland down;
Then he led the bard, with a stately march,
O’er my _second’s_ long and cellar’d arch;--
“And see,” said the sage, “how every ass
Over the sacred stream must pass!”

The youth was mournful, the youth was mute,
He sigh’d for his laurel, he sobb’d for his lute;--
The youth took comfort, the youth took snuff,
And follow’d the lead of that teacher gruff;
And he sits, ever since, in my _whole’s_ kind lap,
In a silken gown and a trencher cap.

is solved by _Cambridge_.

305

Upright and honest is my _first_;
My _second_ you may see
Upon the frozen lake or stream;
My _whole_ is equity.

is solved by _Justice_.

306

Never wearied, see us stand,
A glittering and a stately band--
Of sturdy stuff, but graceful form,
In summer cold, in winter warm;
From hottest duty never swerving,
Night and day our place preserving;
Each serving to a different use,
Not to be changed without abuse.
And, pray, mark well another fact--
In unison we never act,
Except, as on occasion dread,
We watch the ashes of the dead;
When we are ranged, as you may see
As awful sentries, one, two, three.

is solved by _Fire-irons_.

307

My first, though naught, with others is a fruit,
My next is vital to both man and brute.
It should be dear to all who hate the devil,
For it is ever the reverse of evil.
My all, when whole, is eloquent of peace,
Divided it invokes to life that will not cease.

is solved by _Olive_.

308

Guess at my first, ’tis easy to discover,
Covered with rings, and whiskered like a dandy.
Wrapped up in furs, ’tis often on the housetop,
Oft in the chimney!

See where my second, scorning to be hidden,
Stands at the head of quite a band of others,
Like a virago, straddling with feet apart,
And arms akimbo.

Surely my next is happy in its office,
Parting the lovelocks on Neæra’s forehead;
Setting the golden lines wherewith she angles
For the unwary.

If by my whole at any time you pass, you
Tread on the dust of holy saints and martyrs,
Holy the place, may holy thoughts attend you,
Peacefully dreaming!

is solved by _Catacomb_.

309

Offspring of nature and of art, I stand
Chief ’midst the monuments of every land;
I may not lengthen life, but I
For centuries forbid to die.
The greatest truth in me you meet
Is but deception most complete.
Unchanged I last the changing crowds among,
And as I older grow, I grow too young.

is solved by _A portrait_.

310

Pronounced as one letter, and written with three,
Two letters there are, and two only in me;
I’m double, I’m single, I’m black, blue, and gray,
I’m read from both ends, and the same either way.

is solved by _Eye_.

311

My _first_ is false as false can be;
My _next_ old ladies wear;
My _whole’s_ my _first_, as you will see,
As false, I do declare.

is solved by _Falsehood_.

312

When whole I am indeed a thing
To puzzle you a bit;
Though parts of me are hard, at Bridge
The others make a hit;
Or you may make a car of some,
And fix a head to it.

is solved by _Charade_.

313

A word of nine letters explains
How to mitigate bodily pains;
The five vowels are there,
And four consonants share
This function for medical brains.

is solved by _Inoculate_.

314

My second guides my first and third
For pleasure, trade, and war;
My first and second by my third
Are oft transported far.
But when my first my third doth pull,
’Tis then his lot is worst;
And should my second lack my whole,
He’s apt to leave my first.

is solved by _Horsemanship_.

315

It is a fact that neither _melons_ nor _lemons_ grew _on elms_.

The words in italics have the same letters.

316

The completed palindrome, which reads alike from either end, is--

DRAW NO DRAY A YARD ONWARD.

317

The schoolboy likes me well,
For healthful sport I bring,
Yet I can harm create,
Though such a little thing:
Connubial bliss is form’d by me;
My nature is equality.

is solved by _Match_.

318

What person’s name is doubly evil?
_Sinbad_ reminds us of the devil.

319

I’m a district near London;
If made wrong, I come undone;
O’er sweet strings I swift run,
Or appear with the bright sun,
And though by me fights were won,
I can greet you every one.

is solved by _Bow_.

320

I am my first when seen with you,
My next is always bad.
A rogue in grain much harm may do
And make the farmer mad.

is solved by _Weevil_.

321

When winter comes with frost and cold,
My first is welcome, as of old;
And though its grip may make you thinner,
It helps to cook your Christmas dinner.

Let me but hear my next rejoice
At early dawn with cheerful voice,
I haste to find, with eager pleasure,
Some specimen of hidden treasure.

A traveller my whole may find
Far from his English kith and kind;
Though some at home, to England’s shame,
Are this in fact, if not in name.

is solved by _Heathen_.

322

It was to-morrow, and
It will be yesterday;
Now it is near at hand
What is it? Who can say?

is solved by _To-day_.

323

My first doth fill with light his father’s eyes,
The second shadows all the mother’s brow;
My whole all men, all women, girls and boys,
Have had, and long to lose, and lost for ever now;
But know not, nor can know, when it was lost, and how.

is solved by _Childhood_.

324

Complete, though not of human race,
A soul in me may dwell;
Behead, I held a higher place,
Until, like man, I fell.
Again behead, and in the song
Of Burns I’m all your own;
Behead once more, it would be wrong
To find me out when known.

is solved by _Train_, _rain_, _ain_, _in_.

325

With head good for naught,
And with tail always drunk,
You know well what to say
Of the worth of my trunk.
First cut off my tail,
I am Greek, and I’m not;
Then cut off my head,
And some Latin you’ve got.
Lopping both you know best
What remains, as I said,
For I really am you
If I lose tail and head!

is solved by _Out_.

326

One guiding eye I need
In running through the gaps;
My tail, as on I speed,
Is caught in many traps.

is solved by _A Needle_.

327

The Chess charade--

Of all the birds that ever sought a mate,
My first is to but one appropriate,
So speak the word! nor silence shyly woo.
To find my next, go! wander in the Zoo!
My whole is a magician of the squares,
But Art, with Chess, his best affections shares,
So this, indeed, to him may be a law
When _winning’s_ hopeless, grandly still to _draw_.

is solved by _Boden_.

328

Though poor and humble was my birth
I sit enthroned on high;
My footsteps far above the earth,
My canopy the sky.

O’er toiling subjects thus in state
I bear despotic sway;
Yet on them hand and foot I wait
At break and close of day.

is solved by _A coachman_.

329

I am not of flesh and blood,
Yet have I many a bone;
No limbs, except one leg,
And can’t stand on that alone.

My friends are many, and dwell
In all lands of the human race;
But they poke my poor nose into the mud,
And shamefully spatter my face.

Thrust me into each other’s ribs,
Stick me in gutter and rut;
I have never a window, and never a door,
Yet I often open and shut.

is solved by _An umbrella_.

330

Before the crown descended on
The head of England’s Queen,
Four Kings upon that royal throne
Of the same name had been.
Now if the signs which marked their name
Be joined unto a beast,
We have a food on which the same
(A quadruped) will feast.

is solved by _Grass_.

331

Fox’s enigma--

I am pretty, and useful in various ways,
Though I tempt some poor mortals to shorten their days;
Behead me, and then in my place will appear
What youngsters admire every day in the year;
Behead me once more, and without any doubt,
You must be what is left if you don’t find it out.

is solved by _Glass_, _lass_, _ass_.

332

My first, when skilfully performed
(Its doer by applauses warmed),
Bespeaks both skill and vigour.
When with my whole, so soft and light,
I saw my second gay bedight,
She made a splendid figure.

is solved by _Feather_.

333

The man who _rates_ the common _tares_
Above the _aster_ chaste.
_Stare_ as he may, the world declares
Is not a man of taste.
And, though my sympathy he shares,
No _tears_ on him I’ll waste.

The words in italics have the same letters.

334

When a monk in old times, unexpectedly heated,
Endangered the peace of his soul,
To atone for my second my first he repeated
Quite ten times a day on my whole.

is solved by _Average_.

335

An insect small and fell
Makes a weird sound,
If, as its name you spell,
You turn it round.

One letter cast, and still
Shift what remains,
Another insect will
Reward your pains.

is solved by _Gnat_, _tang_, _ant_.

336

Where head and body duly meet
I am as slender as a bee;
Whether I stand on head or feet
My figure shows its symmetry.

But when my head is cut away
The metamorphosis is strange;
Though both of them unaltered stay,
Body and head to nothing change.

is solved by _The figure_ 8.

337

First is in coast, second in ghost,
Third must be reckoned part of second;
Fourth in boat, fifth in float,
Sixth you will find within your mind.
Seventh in blue, eighth in true,
These letters tell a fruit that they spell.

is solved by _Cocoanut_.

338

The hunter and his steed are known
My first to see.
Though men may call my next a stone,
Wood it may be.
My whole, an exile from his home,
Is doomed from place to place to roam.

is solved by _Runagate_.

339

My first expresses power to do,
My next that it is done.
To be my whole belongs to few,
And perfectly to none.

is solved by _Candid_.

340

In my first, as in a shell,
All the sweetest sounds may dwell;
In my second, shells abound
That can catch no sort of sound;
In my whole securely rest
Those who neither jeer nor jest.

is solved by _Earnest_.

341

My first, though of the feathered kind,
Is never known to fly;
My next all who improve their mind
Seize as it passes by.
My whole may much occasion find
To make the truthful lie.

is solved by _Bed-time_.

342

Divide a piece of beef or pork
Without the aid of knife and fork;
It gives a shelf, rejoined with skill,
Where you may set this if you will.
Strike off instead the end, its place
Is plain as nose upon your face.
Cut this asunder in your mind,
And what is first put now behind;
Part of our foot you thus discover,
And in a measure all is over.

is solved by _Chine_, _niche_, _chin_, _inch_.

343

Seen as a whole, my form is now
Akin to strife and malice;
Split, it may grace a princely brow,
Or crown the curls of Alice.

Recast my letters, and I tell
That nourishment is lacking;
Stir them afresh until they spell
The needle’s help in tacking.

is solved by _Hatred_, _hat red_, _dearth_, _thread_.

344

If I write with my first in my second
My whole you can never find out;
Add a letter, and all will be reckoned
A patron of water devout.

is solved by _Within_, _Swithin_.

345

After officers’ mess, when cigars were well alight, the old conundrum was propounded, “What is most like a cornet of horse?” A sharp sub. was ready with the reply, “A hornet, of course”; it was presently capped by this variant which occurred to a married captain, “a corset of horn”; and yet another reading was suggested by the deaf old colonel, “How much did you say the ‘horse ate of corn’?”

346

Loss of love between us
Never can be nice;
Yet we live where Venus
Changes us to ice.

is solved by _Venice_ (Ven_us_ changes to Ven_ice_).

347

The very prosaic reply to the dainty lines--

“Tell me, my sweet,
Why are your feet
Like fairy-tales?”

is: Because they are leg ends (legends)!

348

Our parson _detains_ every man who has leisure
To study _stained_ windows, the glory of fanes;
And _instead_ of devoting his income to pleasure,
Our _sainted_ dean spends his money on panes.

The words in italics have the same letters.

349

Though much attached to merriment,
Or crime for a variety,
To prison I am never sent,
But sparkle in society.

is solved by _The letter E_.

350

Without my first and second’s aid
No pudding worth its sauce is made.
Take on my third, my fourth I am,
My fifth includes myself and Sam.
My whole describes the royal fiddler Nero,
And shows him as an unheroic hero.

is solved by _Suetonius_.

351

The geographical names buried in the sentences--

He has my R.N. as a monogram on all his paper.

I am her stupid sister.

The calmest man is sometimes made irate--

are Smyrna; Amherst; and Madeira.

352

My first’s a fruit of foreign clime,
Sweet to the taste, in price not dear;
My second does my first produce,
And yet my whole my first doth bear.

is solved by _Date-palm_.

353

A thing of beauty, scattered by a breath,
My firm embrace is harbinger of death;
Not made by hands, a work of wondrous art,
Complete and perfected in every part;
Crush me to-day with all-determined care,
Then look to-morrow, and I shall be there!

is solved by _A spider’s web_.

354

Six letters in my name are found.
Though only three we see and sound;
The shepherd by the running river
May hear me where the rushes quiver;
And should a stroke my whole divide,
Leaving but half on either side,
These, backward read, will surely tell
What many a toper loves too well.

is solved by _Murmur_.

355

Upon a battle-field of learned men
Hundred and fifty were by none divided.
“Now,” said the bishop, “add two-thirds of ten
And so you’ll guess the riddle just as I did.”

is solved by _Colenso_.

356

Though the stations of mortals are many
And the _last_ is the head of his race;
Yet he, just as often as any,
Is won by my _first’s_ fell embrace;
Yet we most of us apt are to fall,
When our heads cease our hearts to control,
Let us hope that not one of us all
May be e’er in the state of my _whole_.

is solved by _Sinking_.

357

My whole is no matter,
And light as the air,
Yet it is good on the platter,
And excellent fare.

Curtail and transpose,
And a lady you see,
Who will flatter and pose,
And with many do me.

is solved by _trifle_, _flirt_.

358

My first, for ages out of mind
All men have always worn behind,
And yet alike by sea and land
They carry it upon their hand.
My second, carefully matur’d,
Is never ill but often cured.
My whole, within unchanging lines,
Black men and white alike confines.

is solved by _Backgammon_.

359

The Rebus--“We westand fall,”--is solved by _United we stand, divided we fall_.

360

My second is pressed tightly round
To guard from any ill;
And when preparing to engage
Men find it useful still.
My first against attraction set
Will neutralise its power;
Aided by it, with bargains, some
May spend a happy hour.
You find my whole by careful search,
Which must not be forsaken;
It stands before what comes beyond,
Which may from it be taken.

is solved by _Counterfoil_.

362

Scorned by the meek and humble mind,
And often by the vain possessed,
Heard by the deaf, seen by the blind,
I give the troubled spirit rest.

is solved by _Nothing_.

ODDS AND ENDS

SOLUTIONS

1

Here is both the sum without figures, and its counterpart in numbers:--

UGI)GEVPPNDO(IDTPO
GVNI
----
DNTP
UGI
----
NETN
NEOT
----
DUDO
DUDO
====

956)58700312(61402
5736
----
1340
956
----
3843
3824
----
1912
1912
====

The key sentence is: DON’T GIVE UP, the letters of which correspond to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0.

2

When I shot only birds and rabbits, and my bag at the end of the day showed 36 heads and 100 feet, I had killed 22 birds and 14 rabbits.

3

There are no fewer than 40 distinct readings of the four words which form the square--