PREFACE.
In presenting to the public this New Book of Puzzles, I must present my thanks for the many kind expressions received in regard to those already published. It has been compiled during my leisure moments of the past season, for the benefit of the numerous readers of Merry’s Museum, and contains, in a compact form, many of the Puzzles, Enigmas, Hieroglyphics, etc., which have appeared in the Museum, together with many new ones; and is presented with the hope that it may be the means of interesting the young folks around their own fireside homes, rather than seek amusement elsewhere.
ROBERT MERRY.
ROBERT MERRY’S
SECOND
BOOK OF PUZZLES.
1.
2.
3. My first is (in sound) what my second often does; my whole is a turning-point.
4. My first is found in every country of the globe; my second is what we all should be; my whole is the same as my first.
5. The XLNt FX of a 100150500
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6. Entire, I am a period of time; behead me, I am an article of food; again behead me, and I am used for food.
7. Entire, I am an emblem of beauty; behead me, and I am a powerful liquid; curtail me, and I am a preposition; replace my head, and I am a useful article.
8.
9. Why was Noah saved without a Pope?
10. What is the only word in the English language that can be written without pen, pencil, chalk, or any other pigment?
11. I am composed of 9 letters. In me may be found: 1, a title; 2, a metal; 3, a weight; 4, a coin; 5, one of the Merry cousins; 6, part of a wheel; 7, neat; 8, an adverb; 9 and 10, two prepositions. My whole is a place in New York State.
12. Entire, I am a country; curtail me, and I am an inhabitant of the same; behead and transpose, and I am to prevent.
13.
My first is seen in pillared halls,
Where kings and princes dwell;
’Tis found in every woodland vale,
In every sunny dell.
Upon the yellow sandy beach,
The ocean billows roar,
My next—you’ll find it in the foam,
Rippling upon the shore.
Within the dark and gloomy cave,
Hid from the sun’s bright glare,
Precious jewels line the walls,
And my third is always there.
My fourth and last is found in France,
But never seen in Spain;
It has always been in England’s clime,
In every monarch’s reign.
My whole from Jupiter’s court on high,
Descends to cheer the earth;
Without his presence there would be
Of happiness a dearth.
14.
I am composed of 14 letters:
My 1, 4, 3, 1, 9, 6 is a handsome kind of cloth.
My 2, 5, 11 is a conjunction.
My 8, 7, 5, 9 is a number.
My 10, 3, 12, 13 is to kill.
My whole is a celebrated day.
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16. Entire, I am a sentence; behead me, and I am a fortress; curtailed, I am to strive violently; now transpose, and I am inexperienced.
17. Behead a slipping, and leave the slip.
18.
19. A fox, 90 rods due south of a greyhound, is pursued by the hound at the rate of 5 rods to 4 of the fox, the fox running a due east course. How far will the hound run to overtake the fox?
20. What kind of morals are most easily put on and off?
21.
My first is a female,
My second the same,
My whole is much dreaded—
Pray what is its name?
22. I am composed of four syllables, and am very popular just now; my first and second form a Latin verb; my third is a species of animal; my first, second, and third form a kind of rule; my fourth, reversed, is thin and narrow; and my third and fourth, without my final, is intellectual.
23. Why are unprotected hearth-fires like insolent beggars?
24.
I am composed of 14 letters.
My 13, 11, 7, 3, 1, 12 is a dream.
My 8, 14, 10, 9 is a net.
My 1, 6, 8, 4, 13, 14, 2, 5 is a balance.
My whole is a celebrated man.
25. Entire, I am a noun; behead and transpose, and I am lean; replace my head, curtail me, and I am necessary to the accomplishment of any great object; curtail me again, transpose, and I am sometimes used as a seat.
26.
27. Why are most of the heroes and heroines in novels like the letter O?
28. What poet is like a sly piece of bacon?
29.
I cheer the pilgrim’s lonely way,
As toils he on from day to day;
Curtail me, and I then am found
What students do on college ground;
Curtail once more, and by inspection
You’ll find I am an interjection.
30. What kind of a diary is productive of mischief?
31. Entire, I am a murmur; curtail me, and I signify to produce; omit my first and last, and I am a disturbance; and without my first two I am a bird.
32.
My first speeds proudly through our land;
My next is what my first doth do;
My whole is one of that noble band
Who signed the freedom of our land,
And struggled bravely through.
33. Transpose a wrong way of treating another’s regard into the most foolish manner of doing it.
34. My second, which, by the way, I hope you have took my first after using my whole at dinner.
35. Behead an animal, transpose, and find a flower.
36.
37. I am a word of five letters; in my normal condition I have a tendency to heal. Transposed, I still have a tendency to heel, and have been known to take to them when opportunity offered. Less one fifth, I bathe; again transposed, I am good to eat. Four fifths transposed, form an article much used as an ornament; the same again transposed, is to preserve. Three fifths, properly arranged, will intoxicate. Three fifths, in right order, make a prayer.
38.
39. When did Job call nicknames?
40. Did Jonah cry when the whale swallowed him?
41. Curtail a ruler; transpose, and leave a fastening.
42. Curtail a coin, and transpose it into a country.
43. When is roast beef most valuable?
44.
Fair Bessy promised to bestow
My first upon her lover,
And much I hope that no dark clouds
Around the pair may hover.
Sweet Bessy’s age is just eighteen,
Of gold she has my second;
On bearing off the lovely prize
How many beaus had reckon’d!
And now my riddle I’ll conclude,
And hope you’ll not me quiz,
For what I say is very true—
My whole fair Bessy is.
45. What is that which every one likes to have, and to get rid of as soon as possible after he gets it?
46. My first is found on a ship; my second is a vowel; my third is a title; my whole is the name of an animal.
47. Entire, I’m a man’s name; behead me, and I’m a Turkish coin; behead me again, and I’m too close; again, and I’m a prefix.
48.
49. My second is a useful appendage to my first, and my whole is to abridge.
50.
I am composed of 21 letters.
My 4, 9, 12 is a Greek preposition.
My 7, 5, 8, 14 a vessel used in the Scotch sea.
My 17, 13, 21 is entity.
My 18, 19, 3, 10 is a bed formed by birds.
My 1, 11, 15 is to dip.
My 20, 6, 2, 16 is to tarnish.
My whole is want of symmetry.
51. A squirrel, finding nine ears of corn in a box, took from it, daily, three ears; how many days was he in removing the corn from the box?
52. My first is found in an oyster; my second is possessed by the nobility; every house contains my third; my whole no one applies to himself.
53. What word is that, of three letters, which, read backward, indicates the quality of many who participate in it?
54.
In my first, relations most generally find
An interest of a peculiar kind;
My second, an adverb of humble degree,
Combined with my first names a beautiful tree.