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Pictured Puzzles and Word Play / A Companion to the Twentieth Century Standard Puzzle Book

Chapter 237: 109. A CRYPTOGRAM
By A. Cyril Pearson
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About This Book

A lively compendium of illustrated puzzles and verbal amusements, organized into pictured puzzles, word-play (including anagrams, charades, enigmas, and riddles), and a miscellany of odds and ends, each followed by complete solutions. It pairs visual problems—magic squares, tessellated and domino designs, and geometric dissections—with linguistic challenges that test anagramming, cryptic clues, and witty charades, and includes numerical recreations linking chess and arithmetic. Diagrams and step-by-step answers support independent solving and practical learning.

’Tis ..... that no one takes a .....
 To .... a .... of ....s;
 A .... may often take a ....
 To .... away the ....s.

Solution

No. CXXII.—THE TALKING HEAD

This, though quite an old illusion, may be a mystery to some of our readers, so we give it a place among our many curiosities.

The table is placed on the middle of a platform, well away from the background, and the head, which is very much alive, is prepared to answer questions, or to whistle, or to sing, at the will of the audience. “How it is done” will be explained.

Solution

105. A QUEER OBSTACLE

I’m in everyone’s way,
 Yet no one I stop.
 My four horns each day
 Horizontally play,
 And my head is nailed on at the top.

Solution

No. CXXIII.—A GENERAL OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

With a little ingenuity, and by slightly warming the wax, and shredding the matches for some effects, all sorts of comical figures can be contrived, similar in character to this dignified general on his high-stepping charger.

106. AN OLD ENIGMA
(By a former Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.)

Take five from five, and then
 Put fifty in the middle;
 Twice ten times five times ten
 Will finish off my riddle,
 And bring it to your ken
 As fit as any fiddle!

Solution

No. CXXIV.—ANOTHER BOOMERANG

Cut out in cardboard a cross similar to that shown in this diagram:—

Place one of its limbs under the thumbnail of the left hand, and give the next projecting limb a sharp flick with the middle finger of the right hand. The little boomerang will fly sharply forward, and invariably return rapidly on its tracks. Try it.

107. PHONETIC GAPS

Can you fill these gaps with words of similar sound?

No ..... will ..... before the wind
 A ..... will ... before it;
 We cannot .... the ...., or find
 That earthly powers ..... o’er it.

The gaps in line 1 take words that sound alike; so do those in line 2; and so do the other three in lines 3 and 4.

Solution

No. CXXV.—A PICTURE CHARADE

Can you fill in the missing words so as to complete this picture charade?

My first may .... candle ...,
 My second then ..... ..;
 My whole in ..... moves .....
 ....... an oar or ...

Solution

108. SOUND SENSE

We seem to sound a note of lavish bounty;
 Reverse us, and we indicate a county.

Solution

109. A CRYPTOGRAM

FTHNMLKBRNGSLLCTTN
 LLSKMTMXTTLLTSTHN!

Can you so deal with this as to form a rhyming couplet?

Solution

No. CXXVI.—WALNUTS AND COBS

A good after dinner trick

Place four walnuts and four cobnuts in a row, as indicated on the diagram.

Now, moving always two that stand together, transfer them to some other positions along the line, and in four such moves leave them so that the large and small nuts range alternately. It may, of course, be done with large and small coins, or with other things that are at hand.

Solution

110. A BURIED PROVERB

Yet I see them all! on golden wings that fly
 Old memories steal anew;
 With a tear, with a sigh, with an old, old cry
 They return in ghostly hue!

Solution

111. DOUBLETS

Here is another exercise in Doublets, from Lewis Carroll’s book on the subject:—

Turn ELM into OAK by seven links, introducing the name of another tree as one of them.

Solution

No. CXXVII.—A PICTURE RIDDLE

Can you read in this picture the question of our riddle?

Solution

112. TWO POSERS

1.

My dear Mr Bird,
 We are giving a ball;
 First second we third,
 Pray give us your all.

2.

Second, I did my first and last,
 Till I became my whole;
 And told the tale of my repast,
 A sad and greedy soul.

Solutions

No. CXXVIII.—BUY A BROOM

Here is an excellent example of how a characteristic figure may be contrived by shredding, warming, and uniting a few wax matches:—

Many similar figures can be made by handy fingers.

113. A CHARADE

My whole, industrious, wends his way
 His daily task to meet;
 Behead, transpose, and lo! a sound
 Of music soft and sweet;
 Behead again, I make my way
 With swiftness past belief;
 Again, and where the fields are gay
 My bounty brings relief.

Solution

No. CXXIX.—JEU DE PARQUET
(For the children)

An old book, published more than 100 years ago, gives the following samples of patterns which may be formed with very simple materials:—

All that is needed for this pastime is a set of 128 coloured triangles, 64 of each colour, with which an endless variety of patterns can be arranged by the exercise of taste and ingenuity.

114. LINES BY AN OLD OXBRIDGE DON

’Tis an absurdity to say
 Women should try for a B.A.
 To College honours forward looking;
 They’d best confine themselves to cooking!

How could a Girton girl retort, using the same words?

Solution

115. LESS AND MORE

Eight letters (start with b)
 Three syllables contain;
 Take one away, and see
 Four syllables remain!

Solution

116. BURIED BEASTS

Can you dig out nineteen beasts that are buried in these lines?—

Ireland’s lot heals slowly. Troubles came long ago—at times in battalions—to attack and harass her. Ambitious democrats now countermine famous enthusiasts nearly akin to heroes. Anarchy enables cowards to sow hot terror and all amazement.

Solution

117. PALINDROMIC VERSE

Can you recast the following sentences so that their words form a verse of four lines, which makes good sense, with lines that rhyme alternately, when read from either end?:—

Fading slowly day dies, mournful winds sigh, Stars are waking brightly; owlet holding high revel flies hooting, breaking nightly silence.

Solution

118. AN ANAGRAM IN THE MAKING

“The Observatory at Greenwich, in England,” has been turned into an excellent anagram, which starts—On landing here begin—Can you complete it?

Solution

119. AN ENIGMA

No man at all am I
 And, if you turn me round,
 To hear my warning cry
 Not any men are found.

Solution

120. ASK A SAILOR

How can our sailors fare the best
 When times are harder?
 How do they greet with merry jest
 An empty larder?

Solution

121. AN ENIGMA

I lose my head when I am here,
 Transpose me I am three;
 Look in a book, you find me there,
 And with me her and he.

Solution

122. MISSING WORDS

Jack did ....... that he could square
 The circle to a .......;
 His friends ....... that a brain so rare
 Required attention ........

The missing words are spelt with the same seven letters.

Solution

123. A HUMAN PRODIGY

My father is my son,
 And I’m my mother’s mother;
 My daughter and sister are one,
 I’m grandam to my brother!

How was this?

Solution

124. A CHARADE

Catch my first with nimble wit,
 Add a simple word;
 Then my whole may help a bit
 Opportunely heard.

Solution

125. A PARADOX

My mate and I from home did start,
 Some little space we were apart.
 When we had run a mile or more
 We kept our distance, as before;
 Shade of Colenso! could this be,
 When twice as fast as I ran he?

Solution

126. AN ENIGMA
(From Lewis Carroll’s Papers.)

A monument all men agree
 Am I in all sincerity,
 Half cat, half hindrance made.
 If head and tail removed should be,
 Then most of all you strengthen me.
 Replace my head, the stand you see
 On which my tail is laid.

Solution

127. A CHARADE

I’m known to the poorest and worst,
 And my worth by a child may be reckoned;
 The least thing in nature is double my first,
 And my whole is just half of my second.

Solution

128. WHAT IS IT?

My first without its head and tail
 Is one and undivided;
 My second shows its teeth, is frail,
 And as a rule one-sided.
 The two to hold my first avail,
 My busy toil provided.

Solution

129. BURIED TOWNS

In each of these sentences a town is buried:—

His sister played the piano while we sang.
I saw Nell out here last evening.
The general rode a large black mare.
I have ordered a cab at half-past one.
Meet me in the lane at half-past nine.

Can you dig them out?

Solution

130. A GOOD ANAGRAM

“The leaning tower of Pisa, in Tuscany, Italy.” The first seven words of its anagram are “A funny spot in a sweet city.” Can you complete the anagram by adding four more appropriate words?

Solution

131. MISSING WORDS

When they found that catacomb
 Near the ....... at Rome
 ’Twas the ....... discussion of the season;
 But the ....... effect
 Of the skeletons select
 Deprived the poor Professor of his reason!

Solution

132. A CHARADE

My first is pretence,
 My second a dandy;
 When fogs are most dense
 My whole will be handy.

Solution

133. A DECISIVE ANAGRAM

Can you prove by anagram that, whatever may be true of other plays accredited to Shakespeare, Bacon had certainly no hand in “Much Ado About Nothinge,” if we adopt the old spelling of the final word?

Solution

134. RATHER OBSCURE

Use all your wits to guess my all,
 Can any guess it right?
 Transposed, and never seen at all,
 It still is felt in sight.
 Behead, transpose, then let it be,
 And you at last a clue may see.

Solution

135. SHUFFLE THE LETTERS

Can you recast “Insanitary” and “Sanitary Reform” so as to form two very appropriate anagrams?

Solution

136. A CHARADE

Let my second cut my first
 When I come to table;
 Though I cannot quench your thirst
 Eat me—you are able.

Solution

137. MISSING LETTERS

whtmrslndsosdlyswr?
 whtdyssdrksdysthtwrslrm?
 lssknyskthndfr,
 llshllcllwrhrssndhrm.
 whycllsblldstlkthtghstlyrt
 llgllntctsgrndndmntyprt?

Can you supply the missing letters?

Solution

138. A CHARADE

To me when whole, for I am sweet,
 The moon fresh brightness brings;
 Cut off my tail, I’m blunt, but meet
 To sharpen other things.
Behead me twice, and I have led
 Soldiers to face the foe;
 Headless and tailless, one remains
 Though all the rest may go.

Solution

139. IS IT BANTING?

We start when the ninth hour is past,
 Then there’s an end of you.
 A vengeful goddess shows at last
 What Antifat will do.

Solution

140. A CHARADE

When on charades intent I take my pen,
 To seek some hidden goal,
 Over my first my second comes, and then
 Quite overcomes my whole.

Solution

141. A PRIZE CRYPTOGRAM

The following cryptic lines were sent as a reliable tip before a race in which Petronel was to run:—

“Tell me, Ben, who tore it
Seek a plant for it, see Bob.”

Can you discover their hidden meaning?

Solution

142. AN ENIGMA

I have no form, I have no friend,
 From me all come, in me all end.
 And it is strange but very true
 That I am here and nowhere too.

Solution

143. FACING BOTH WAYS

Can you fill in this broken sentence, first to describe a curse, and then to proclaim its cure:—

A sed end ought eat ease ain.

using 16, and then 17, extra letters.

Solution

144. A CHARADE

My first is a cover,
 My second a city;
 The whole you discover
 With this if you’re witty.

Solution

145. BURIED RIVERS

The deaf and dumb girl began gesticulating with a message, and her delivery was ever neat, with graceful pose in every attitude.

Four rivers are buried here.

Solution

146. ANSWER BY ANAGRAM

If the “shingle” on the beach at Brighton could speak, what would be its boast?

Solution

147. A SIMPLE RECIPE

She is as deaf as any post,
 Incurable I fear;
 She is my guest, I am her host,
 How can I make her hear?

Solution

148. THE PLAINT OF THE REJECTED

A May-Day Dirge

Refused, rejected as before!
 Yes,[A] ... .. I know of yore.
 ..... of youth, and deadly foe
 To genius. Eastward then I go
 With ..... undaunted, and my name
 Through ..... shall yet resound with fame;
 And subjects shall be mine by scores
 From far ..... to Ganges’ shores.

[A] More than one word.

Solution

149. “BETA IN GREEK MEANS LETTER B.”

The clever play-writer who suggested these words as a phonetic excuse for wife-beating might in another fashion invite a man to beat his wife by merely calling him. What would he say?

Solution

150. A REBUS

storm?
a th		 an umbrella
me who		 with
alls		 all
mud.

Solution

151. BONES OF A PALINDROME

NRNRMMHDLVLDHMMRNRN.

Can you, keeping these consonants in their order, fill in vowels so as to form a sentence which is a perfect palindrome, and reads alike from either end?

Solution

152. A NICE POINT

“Can you tell me,” said an undergraduate to his tutor, who was great at Ecclesiastical Law, “whether the Pope would be allowed to bury the Archbishop of Canterbury?” As some slight stress was laid on the syllables Canterbury, the tutor for a moment suspected some trick, but being assured that it was quite a serious question, promised to consider the point. What should he reply?

Solution

153. A BURIED PROVERB

While there are very many as kind as this, they know no task unkind. Can you dig a proverb out from this sentence?

Solution

154. IN THE OPEN

Kate gathers me where children three,
 Tom, Jane, and Mary, chatter;
 He leads the way, and then we see
 The other two come at her!

Solution

155. A BURIED QUOTATION
(From Shakespeare)

Strange weather! What could equal it? Yesterday sunshine and soft breezes, to-day a summer cyclone raging noisily; then other changes, as floods of fiercest rain eddy beneath the blast.

Solution

156. PALINDROME ON A BEETROOT

Fill in the necessary vowels, and form thus with these consonants in their present order a perfect palindrome:—

RDRTPTPTRDR

It must read alike from either end.

Solution

157. A CHARADE

My first we all do when we fail;
 My next is heard in rain or hail;
 My fourth a sheep of gender male;
 My third is one without its tail;
 My whole for foreign countries sail.

Solution

158. AMBIGUOUS

On the outer wall of a Western college this was written: “Young women should set a good example, for young men .... ...... ....!” What three words will give a most ambiguous sense to the inscription?

Solution

159. AN ENIGMA

I’m but a little letter, still
 I have my duties to fulfil;
 If off you take
 My tail, and make
 An alteration in my lot,
 Though I seem shorter I am not.

Solution

160. DIABOLUS!

Says Tom to Bill, “Pray tell me, sir,
 Why is it that the devil,
 In spite of all his naughty ways,
 Can never be uncivil?”
Says Bill to Tom, “The answer’s plain
 To any mind that’s bright;
 Because the ... .’ ........, sir,
 Cannot be ... .’ .....!”

Can you supply the missing words?

Solution

161. MISSING WORDS

Beneath the ..... which shade the lawn
 Her bicycle she mounted,
 And with a ....., ere she had gone
 An hour, ten ..... she counted.
 It rained, it snowed, but nought could stop her,
 Till in the ..... she came a cropper!

Solution

162. AN INSCRIPTION WITH A POINT

On the comparatively new organ at Ober Ammergau, on a brass plate above the keyboard, is the following Latin inscription:—