The Riddler (New Haven, 1835), 5:
Wolf, goat and cabbages.
Attributed to Alcuin, in Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria, London, 1842, 1:74. [↑]
[69] Cf. Grimm, 94, The Peasant’s Wise Daughter:
“Then said the king, ‘Come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding, not walking, not in the road, not out of the road, and if thou canst do that I will marry thee.’ So she went away, put off everything she had on, and then she was not clothed, and took a great fishing net, and seated herself in it and wrapped it entirely round and round her, and then she was not naked, and she hired an ass and tied the fisherman’s net to its tail, so that it was forced to drag her along, and that was neither riding nor walking. The ass had also to drag her in the ruts, so that she only touched the ground with her great toe, and that was neither being in the road nor out of the road.”
[70] Cf. “Flores” of Pseudo-Bede (III) Mod. Phil. 2:562:
Sedeo super equum non natum, cujus matrem in manu teneo.
Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):
XL. On greene grass I go
And on oaken beames I stand, [[211]]