Riddle
or Enigma, an obscure saying in which a hidden meaning is proposed for discovery. The famous riddle proposed by the Grecian Sphinx to Oedipus will bear repetition:
What animal is that which in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?
Oedipus made reply,
Man, who in childhood goes on hands and knees, in manhood walks erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff.
Samson, who, it may be remembered, had found a swarm of bees housed within the ribs of a dead lion proposed the following riddle to the Philistines:
Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.
What we caught we threw away, and what we could not catch, we kept,
is said to be a popular riddle among the fishermen of France. The following, referring to a candle and a well respectively, are popular nursery riddles:
The longer she stands, the shorter she grows.
Round as a saucer and deep as a cup,
All the horses of King George can't pull it up.
In the seventeenth century the riddle was a favorite form of literary and social diversion. The collected riddles of France, Germany, and England form a small library. Of late the riddle seems to have degenerated into the conundrum and the pun. See Puzzle; Conundrum; Charade