Kinks.
No. 6.—NATURAL-HISTORY ENIGMAS.
| I am loud and turbulent, yet incapable of noise; |
| I'm the forefront of battle, and the simplest of toys; |
| I live in the water, but must be always kept dry; |
| I am perfectly deaf, yet hear every cry; |
| I swim all the time, keep step when I travel; |
| I am fixed in one place, now this riddle unravel. |
Of ten animals allowed in heaven,
According to Moslem creed,
My first is one. My second's another
Of the same identical breed.
My third each is when once he gets there,
After they let him in.
My whole the Moslem law keeps out,
Since he is a man of sin.
| I nourish my young, and so am a beast; |
| My four feet are tied, so I walk but the least; |
| I am hard as a rock, am soft as pure silk; |
| I'm a dark, ugly brown, am whiter than milk; |
| I am made from a tree, am dug from the ground; |
| I grow from a seed; in the rocks I abound; |
| With never a feather, like a bird I can fly; |
| I am entirely dumb, but still have a cry. |
| A bird that can fly, with never a feather; |
| A beast with four feet bound closely together; |
| A rock and a vegetable, an earth and a tree; |
| I am all of these things; now what can I be? |
I am so lowly I cling to the ground,
Yet soar to a heavenly height;
I represent the only thing of my kind.
Yet am owned by each human wight;
Each person can have only one of me, true,
Still, strange as it seems, he always has two:
I can swim on the water, but am sure to sink through it,
I am purely a spirit, going where man can't pursue it;
I'm the oldest of matter, have form, weight, and feeling,
I am simply a sound, loneliness revealing.
Though owned by the English, I belong to no nation,
Yet furnish support to all human creation.