Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-08-17
Rfpbres OF ANCIENT TIMES.
Anagrams and Acrosties Have Been Known
 Since the Days of the Psalihist.

Anagrams and Acrosties Have Been Known 1 Since the Days of the Psalrnist.
 It seems ridiculous that the people who lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago were more interested in pug i zles than you and 1 are to-day. This l is true. nevertheless. The puzzles l refer to are those in writing, although the ancients probably occupied some 1 of their spare time with strange and puzz1ing devices of wood and metal, as we do. What pleasure it is to solve i the problems in our fayorite maga- zines or newspapers. It is very good exercise for our brains, too, and where a prize Is offered to the fortunate boy or girl who first solves the puzzles of different kinds, the work is more pleas ant still in the anticipation of proving | oneself a little cleverer than the others and of receiving the gift We l find that the acrostic is the most an cient form of puzzling mankind. i Acrostic is Greek for number of verses, the first letters of which form l a word-sometimes a name and some ] times. a sentence The final letter may form a word, or, as Addison tells us, the letters will even run down the 1 center of the verses, as seam. The Hebrew poets often make their verses run over the entire alphabet. Twelve of the psalms are written on this plani | the most notable being the one hundred and nineteenth
 This has twenty-two divisions of stanzas, corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew al- phabet. Each stanza is formed of eight couplets, and the first line Of each eouplet in the first stanza in the original Hebrew begins with the letter aleph, the second commences with beth, the third with gimel and so on through the alphabet. The English divisions of the Psalms are called after the Hebrew letter that began the coup lets. It was also customary to com pose verses on sacred subjects after the fashion of Hebrew acrostics. This was done with view to aid the mem- ory, and such pieces were called abeee- darian hymns.
 The riddle is also of ancient origin, The Proverbs of the Bible, or sayings Attributed to Solomon, are often in the form of riddles. Was it not the queen of Sheba who proposed riddles to Solo, mon2 The Koran, the scriptural book Of the Mohammedans, also contains riddles, as do some books now in exist ence, written in Arabic and Persian The ancient Egytians also propounded riddles, and one of the seven wise men of Greece, who lived in the sixth cen tury B. C., was celebrated for his riddles in verse. Homer, the Creek poet, according to a statement in Plutarch, died of vexation at not being able to solve riddle. In the middle ages riddles were encouraged for amusements on winter nights in the baronial hall and also in the monastery. In later days some of the most brilliant men of letters con tributed to tile list of riddles.
 The anagrAm, or transposition of the letters in words or sentences. was much tp vogue in Greece in the olden times. The Gabalisrs, or Jewish doctors, thought that the anagram always pointed out g mans destiny, and if his name written backwards or transposed in any way spelled word with mean ing, they firgnly believed 1t 8 revalation. The hatterets of James T., of England, proved his right to the British mdn- 0gchy as the desoepdant of the myth iesl King Arthur, from his name Charles danes stuart, which becomes claims Arthur's scat. The best anagrams are those which have in the new order Of letters some signifcation appropriate to that from which they are formed. When Pilate asked: "Quid est veritas?'' (What is truth9) he probably had no idea that his question answered itself. But 1t did; the trahsposition made 1t :,Est vir qui adesth tt is the man who Is here). Anagrams were written as early as 250 B. C., and their name comes from the Greek words ana, backwards, and gramma, written.--PhiladeIphia l Press.