Part 12 (1/2)

66. Oblique Puzzle.

Malice, eight, a polemical meeting, a Scottish river, what I write with, a decided negative, the capital of Ireland. The initials downward name a celebrated musician.

(solution in p.67 below.)

67. Diagonal Puzzle.

A direction, a singer, a little bird, a lady's ring, a sharp shaver.

Read from left to right and right to left, the centrals show two famous novelists.

The following are answers to these two puzzles, and afford good examples of their construction to any one who wishes to try his hand at their manufacture.

OBLIQUE. DIAGONAL.

R E V E N G E L A B E L O C T A V E T E N O R S Y N O D D I V E R S P E Y J E W E L I N K R A Z O R N O I

68. Diamond Puzzle.

The head of a mouse, what the mouse lives in, the county of calves, the city of porcelain, a German town, a Transatlantic stream, a royal county, a Yorks.h.i.+re borough, Eve's temptation, our poor relation, myself. Centrals down and across, show a wide, wide, long river.

The construction of the Diamond Puzzle is exhibited in the following diagram, which is, at the same time, the answer to it.

DIAMOND.

M A I R E S S E X D R E S D E N G O T T I N G E N M I S S I S S I P P I B E R K S H I R E H A L I F A X A P P L E A P E I

69. Rebuses

are a cla.s.s of Enigma generally formed by the first, sometimes the first and last, letters of words, or of transpositions of letters, or additions to words. Dr. Johnson, however, represents Rebus to be a word represented by a picture. And putting the Doctor's definition and our own explanation together, the reader may glean a good conception of the nature of the Rebus of which the following is an example:

The father of the Grecian Jove; A little boy who's blind; The foremost land in all the world; The mother of mankind; A poet whose love-sonnets are Still very much admired;-- The _initial_ letters will declare A blessing to the tired.

Answer--_S_aturn; _L_ove; _E_ngland; _E_ve; _P_lutarch.

The initials form _sleep._

The excellent little work mentioned in para. 63, ent.i.tled ”Philosophy and Mirth united by Pen and Pencil,” has this novelty, that many of the Enigmas are accompanied by enigmatical pictures, so that the eye is puzzled as well as the ear.

[GLa.s.s FIRST BROUGHT TO ENGLAND A.D. 668.]

70. Square Words.

A comparatively modern sort of riddle, in which the letters of each word selected reads both across and down. With four letters the making of the riddle is easy, but with five or six the difficulty increases. We give an example of each.

i. Inside, a thought, a liquid gem, a timid creature.