Parlour Pastime for the Young Author:George General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1857 Original Publisher: James Blackwood Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can... more » select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: RIDDLES, CHARADES, PUZZLES, AND CONUNDRUMS. Of all kinds of indoor amusement, the Riddle is the most ancient. Many of the allegories and parables in the Holy Scriptures partake of the nature of riddles. You recollect that most venerable riddle which, it is said, the Sphinx proposed to the people of Thebes, and which was solved by CEdipus: " What is that which walks upon four legs in the morning, two in the day time, and three in the evening?" The answer given was, Man -- because in his childhood he crawls on all fours, in manhood he walks erect, and in old age he goes with the assistance of a stick. Indeed, the literature of all nations abound in these exercises for ingenuity. I shall show you some few, original and selected, beginning with: -- ENIGMAS. I. A PACK OF CARDS. In number we are fifty-two, A motley, quaint, and jovial crew; We go wherever fortune sends, By some deemed foes, by others friends. In festive scenes we oft are found, In dissipation's halls abound; Four monarchies, with rogues in court, Each in apparel of a sort; One makes his kingdom in the heart, Another takes the delving part, A third is armed quite savagely, A fourth lights up the other three. We have a pope, we have a deuce -- I pray th' expression you'll excuse; Our commons have their apple seed; But, 'stead of fruit, a noxious weed Springs up to choke the mind's best soil, And a false pleasure proves fierce toil; A pack of wolves -- we fleece the sheep, And leave them wasted hours to reap. II. MERRY THOUGHT. Sometimes I'm young, and sometimes old; Sometimes ...« less