The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-03-07

of its kind.
We pass over the graver contests, when
Kings ASK sages or sages ask one another:
thing, the wisest thing?"
Nor can we llnger on the riddles Of Esop
for which an Oriental origin is claimed by
many scholars who trace them now to Ara
bla. now in India. The story which has
the deepest significance as we'll as the wild
est popularity is that in which Esop under
fronted with his task demands that the
rivers be turned off first as they were not
included in the bargain.
Inc elaborate contest between Homer
and Heriod gives US Il series of questions in
which the two poets put each the others
wisdom to the test. Virgil makes his shop
herds ask each other riddles.
Women and children had then. as they
have now. a special fondness for conun-
drums. Plato, by ridiculing one of these
diversions of the children in the market.
helped to perpetuate the puzzle of the
man that was no man, the bird that was no
bird. the tree that was no tree, the stone
that was no stone" Roman boys asked
one another:
My mother bore me and is borne of me-
The answer is lice" although it might be
a dozen things, and the Greek form of it
makes the answer day and night" either
OF which will serve. Indeed the night as
u VSAAo VI N AdS udS UVuTeu IN RETl0T9
poetry from Aeschylus down.
In such contests to lose ones head fonr-
atlvely was often to lose ones head liter
ally. Ihere are many ancient storieg in
which life is the forfeit for failure 10 read
the riddle The most familiar of these is
the question p~ropounded by the sphinx,
which still enjoys a wide popularity in
Greece. Unfortunately 30 much crawling
ID done at all ages that "four-footed in the
morning, two-footed at noon, and three
footed at night" will hardly cover the
facts.
One of the more famous riddles of the
dangerous kind is that which cost Homer
has life. for the poet is said to have pined
away because he could not ind the key to
the tsherman's riddle who. when asked by
MIN what they had caught, replied:
."hat We caught we left; what We did
not catch We have on u.s."
This riddle had great popularity, although
ihoi!et = scholars when they mention it put
1T aside scornfully-not recognizing he in
terest taken by the people in the fortunes O!
the poet hero. The walls Of Pompeii show
IN the medltatorv yoet and the inuuiripp
fisherman. Less serious was the Greek
custom OF asking ~conundrums after dinner,
WHICH was Il faVorte way of testing the
capacity OF a sultor for the hand ot the
daughter OF the house. The casket story IN
the Merchant OF Venice is of the snn,,
family. ~
The use of initials with varying internre-
tatlon, which WAS II f~avorite comic sian,
deylce a few years ago is Greek, is Latin,
All the "readera" OF my boyhoou contained
the rhymed story of G.. j.. NJ. winch ths
sheepthief took to mean Good Fat Mini,
ton" If we laughed at that Broad Grin ;,
which can hardly imneine, it was a Greek
laugh.
Decnpitation puzzles we're yery common
aB were all the other tricks with letters
AnaSlams were ~favorlte playthlnss, andth,
whole brood of acrostics.
Not without interest, i'll view of Mr.. To-.
Mathis Donelly's supposed discovery in til,
text OF Shakespeare, is the story that n lit.
erary gentleman of the fourth century pu
forth a tragedy under the name of 'Soph
%ocles," which deceived even SO cultured
gentleman as Herclides Ponticus. VIII,
quoted with great unction-until the forge
pointed ont to Herclides. who had been hi
master, the following statement which IL
had wrought into tho poem:
AN ancient monkey is no, readily entrapped
lie docs get trapped but it takes time to get hil
trapped
Similar tricks have been played upo]
modern editors who have admitted unwit