INTRODUCTION
It was explained by (Edipus, who pointed out that man walked on
his hands and feet in the morning of life, at the noon of life he
walked erect, and in the evening of his days he supported his
infirmities with a stick. When the Sphinx heard this explanation,
she dashed her head against a rock and immediately expired. This
shows that puzzle solvers may be really useful on occasion.
Then there is the riddle propounded by Samson. It is perhaps
the first prize competition in this line on record, the prize being
thirty sheets and thirty changes of garments for a correct solution.
The riddle was this : " Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of
the strong came forth sweetness." The answer was, "A honeycomb
in the body of a dead lion." To-day this sort of riddle survives in
such a form as, " Why does a chicken cross the road ? " to which
most people give the answer, " To get to the other side," though
the correct reply is, ''To worry the chauffeur." It has degenerated
into the conundrum, which is usually based on a mere pun. For
example, we have been asked from our infancy, " When is a door
not a door ? " and here again the answer usually furnished (" When
it is a-jar") is not the correct one. It should be, ''When it is a
negress (an egress)."
There is the large class of Letter Puzzles, which are based on the
little peculiarities of the language in which they are written—such as
anagrams, acrostics, word-squares, and charades. In this class we
also find palindromes, or words and sentences that read backwards
and forwards alike. These must be very ancient indeed, if it be
true that Adam introduced himself to Eve (in the English language,
be it noted) with the palindromic words, " Madam, I*m Adam."
Then we have Arithmetical Puzzles, an immense class, full of
diversity. These range from the puzzle that the algebraist finds to
be nothing but a " simple equation," quite easy of direct solution,
up to the profoundest problems in the elegant domain of the theory
of numbers.
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