Answers to Conundrums, Enigmas, Etc.
1. A flea.
2. Because we must all give it up.
3. Because the engine cannot play upon it.
4. Because he has been to sea (see).
5. Kittens.
6. When he’s a weak (week) back.
7. One I was and the other I wear.
8. A looking-glass.
9. Short.
10. Because P makes “ass” “pass.”
11. Because it hasn’t a curd (occurred).
12. Because all the rest are in-audible.
13. Because he has M. P. at the end of his name.
14. Because it is killed first and cured afterward.
15. Because it is uttered, but not allowed (aloud).
16. Because there are fewer of them.
17. Because its head is on one side and its tail on the other.
18. Because he is a-seeking (sea-king) what never was.
19. Two-and-twopence.
20. Because it’s the scenter (centre).
21. A cock robbing (cock-robin).
22. Hailing omnibuses.
23. When it is made into little pats.
24. Because it’s a watch-you may-call-it.
25. Invisible green.
26. D K.
27. Absence of body.
28. Facetiously.
29. Because it’s the grub that makes the butterfly.
30. The letter M.
31. A draught (draft).
32. A glove.
33. The one is a rhododendron and the other is a cold apple-dumpling. (You surely wouldn’t wish for a greater difference than that.)
34. Because he’s naturally her suitor (hirsuter).
35. A bald head.
36. Because it is the centre of light.
37. Because we cannot be wed without it.
39. Because one tongue is enough for any woman.
40. Yew. (This is a riddle which should be used with due precaution.)
41. Putting out tubs to catch soft water when it rains hard.
42. Because none but the brave deserve the fair (fare).
43. To take the jaw out of a woman.
44. Because all the mails (males) are tied up in bags.
45. R made her (Armada).
46. Because it is making game of him.
47. The word “wholesome.”
48. Because it is a fellow feeling for another.
49. When he doubles his fists.
50. Because his gait (gate) is broken and his locks are few.
51. Because it is ten to one if you catch it.
52. Because it makes men mean.
53. When he cannot help it.
54. A step farther (step-father).
55. Because his master pays it for him.
56. When he says he’s a bacca’-stopper (ease her, back her, stop her).
57. Because it makes needles needless.
58. Because in France all the water is “l’eau.”
59. The one gives milk and the other gives whey (way).
60. A cowslip.
61. Wet.
62. They would go after tea (T).
63. Because they ride on the main (mane).
64. When Henry VIII. dissolved the Pope’s bull.
65. A, because it makes her hear.
66. Because there is no living without them.
67. When it is all on one side.
68. Because the cat’ll (cattle) eat it.
69. Because he is one beside himself.
70. Because the sooner they are carried out the better.
71. U, because it is always in fun.
72. Because Gee (G) makes it Go.
73. The one is “hard up” and the other soft down.
74. Stone.
75. Because it makes oil boil.
76. Quick.
77. The elephant the most, because he never travels without his trunk. The fox and the cock the least, because they have only one brush and comb between them.
78. None; they are all carried to it.
79. Cake, which is only occasionally “tipsy,” while wine is always drunk.
80. The one who has the largest head.
81. Because they sell what they knead (need) themselves.
82. The Great Bear (grate bare).
83. His daughter.
84. When he is turned into a meadow.
85. The new moon; because the full moon is a great deal lighter.
86. Make the waistcoat and trousers first.
87. Because he takes you in with an open countenance.
88. Because for every grain they give a peck.
89. Noise.
90. Your mother.
91. For divers reasons.
92. For sun-dry reasons.
93. Dates.
94. Because it is always in waiting.
95. The letter I.
96. Like to be drowned.
97. Because they are in happiness, while all the rest are in purgatory.
98. Because it is the end of beef.
99. The outside.
100. Your pillow.
101. Because the sooner it is put on the better.
102. B natural.
103. Haste.
104. The letter M.
105. The letter S. S(IX).
106. Because his wicked works are brought to light.
107. A nail in a shoe.
108. Because no one was clever enough to make out his policy.
109. Because he puts down three and carries one.
110. Because it is very often passed over.
111. Advice.
112. His son.
113. A bed.
114. His foot.
115. A lie, of course.
117. “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.”
118.
A man used to deceit.
Can best counterfeit (count her feet);
And so, I suppose,
He could best count her toes.
119. Throw him out of a second-story window, and let him come down plump.
120. The one is happy and careless the other cappy and hairless.
121. When the first apple cursed the first pair (pear).
122. From a swan’s breast.
123. Because they were two relatives without an antecedent.
124. A ditch.
125. Because women make fools of them.
126. Because it is apt to split.
127. A footman.
128. The dove, because she minds her peas and coos (p’s and q’s).
129. Sunday, because all the others are weak days.
130. Tie a knot in his tail, and call it a pig’s tie (pig-stye).
131. Because he’s an ass.
132. In the dictionary.
133. The one speaks without reflecting, the other reflects without speaking.
134. Because he can always eat the sand which is (sandwiches) there.
135. Because they die just (digest) before they eat them.
137. Maid of Orleans, of course.
138. Because she makes both ends meet.
139. Because without a tail it is nothing.
140. Because he had no knife.
141. Rooks, because they never complain without caws.
142. A pair of post-horses (which have only the postilion’s leg between them).
143. Insatiate.
144. Cod.
145. Chocolate.
146. Tea-chest.
147. Won-der.
148. On! Stanley! on!—On-i-on.
149. A toast.
150. The letter E.
151. Wel-come.
152. La-tin.
153. Rhu-barb.
154. Bow-string.
155. The letter H.