number, and add five to them, then there will be as many above three-score as there are now wanting to complete that number.”
Prince Wladomir calculated for a long time, and very laboriously, as if upon the solution of the riddle his appointment to the place of superintendent-general of the finances had depended, and at last hit upon the number 45 as the result of his mental operation.
But the princess said, “If there were half as many again in it as there are, besides a third part and a sixth part, there would be as many over forty-five as there are now below that number.”
Although every student of mathematics who is anything of an arithmetician could have solved this problem with the greatest ease, yet for a bad calculator the power of divination is absolutely required, if he has to pass honourably through his trial. As the wise Primislas happily did possess the gift of divination, he found without any trouble the solution of the problem. “Thou trusty companion of the heavenly powers,” he said, “he that undertakes to espy thy high-flown and divine mind, resembles him that tries to follow the eagle in his flight when he hides among the clouds. I shall, however, follow