Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/201

 186 A steel grey with a flaxen tail and a brass boy driving. Answer: needle and thread; thimble.


 * Little Jennie Whiteface has a red nose,
 * The longer she lives the shorter she grows.

Answer: a lighted candle.


 * A man without eyes
 * Went out to view the skies,
 * He saw a tree with apples on:
 * He took no apples,
 * He ate no apples,
 * And still he left no apples on.

Answer: a one-eyed man: the tree had two apples: he took one.

Long legs, crooked thighs, little head, no eyes. Answer: a tongs.

Ink-ank under a bank ten drawing four. Answer: a girl milking a cow.


 * Four-and-twenty white bulls tied in a stall:
 * In comes a red bull and over licks them all.

Answer: teeth and tongue.

These are perhaps not very hard, though not quite so easy as the Sphinx's riddle to the Thebans, which Œdipus answered to his immortal renown. But I should like to see Œdipus try his hand at the following. Samson's riddle about the bees is hard enough, but ours beats it hollow. Though Solomon solved all the puzzles propounded to him by the Queen of Sheba, I think this would put him to the pin of his collar. I learned it in Limerick two generations ago; and I have got a Wexford version from Mr. MacCall. Observe the delightful inconsequence of riddle and answer.