‘Call upon him, call upon him.’
‘What is his name?’
‘I have told you twice,
And won’t tell you again.’ ”
(Answer: “Bean.”)[1]
(vii.) “Little Miss Etticott,
In a a white petticoat,
And a red nose;
The longer she stands.
The shorter she grows.”
(Answer: A candle.)
(viii.)—The answer to the following riddle or puzzle is to be found by altering the punctuation, when it will be seen that the whole sense is completely changed.
“I saw a fish-pond all on fire,
I saw a house bow to a squire,
I saw a parson twelve feet high,
I saw a cottage near the sky,
I saw a balloon made of lead,
I saw a coffin drop down dead,
I saw two sparrows run a race,
I saw two horses making lace,
I saw a girl just like a cat,
I saw a kitten wear a hat,
I saw a man who saw these too,
And said though strange they all were true.”[2]
I think I cannot do better in closing this last section of Dorsetshire children’s games and rhymes than quote at length a humorous poem by the late Mr. Barnes, called “Riddles,” which contains very fair specimens of that kind of ingenious word-puzzling which affords so much amusement to the peasant youth of both sexes and in most countries.
- ↑ These last two riddles, with slight variations, are to be found in Gregor’s Folklore of North East Scotland.
- ↑ For another specimen of the same kind see Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes (ed. 1846), No. cccclxxxv.
