Enquire Within Upon Everything Part 11

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it is easy to write and not very hard to read the entire speech. The whole theory of the cryptogram is that each correspondent possesses the key to the secret. To confound an outside inquirer the key is often varied. A good plan is to take a line from any ordinary book and subst.i.tute the first twenty-six of its letters for those of the alphabet. In your next cryptogram you take the letters from another page or another book. It is not necessary to give an example. Enough will be seen from what we have written to instruct an intelligent inquirer.

58. Decapitations and Curtailments

are riddles somewhat of the nature of the Logogriph, which _see_.

In the first, the omission of the successive initials produces new words, as--Prelate, Relate, Elate, Late, Ate. In the curtailment the last letter of the word is taken away with a similar result, as--Patent, Paten, Pate, Pat, Pa. Of like kind are the riddles known as variations, mutilations, reverses, and counterchanges. A good example of the last-named is this:

Charge, Chester, Charge: on, Stanley, on!

Were the last words of Marmion.

Had I but been in Stanley's place, When Marmion urged him to the chase, A tear might come on every face.

The answer is onion--On, I, on.

[MOCK NOT A COBBLER FOR HIS BLACK THUMB.]

59. Enigmas

are compositions of a different character, based upon _ideas_, rather than upon words, and frequently constructed so as to mislead, and to surprise when the solution is made known. Enigmas may be founded upon simple catches, like Conundrums, in which form they are usually called RIDDLES, such as:

"Though you set me on foot, I shall be on my head."

The answer is, _A nail in a shoe_. The celebrated Enigma on the letter H, by Miss Catherine Fanshawe, but usually attributed to Lord Byron, commencing:

"'Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in h.e.l.l, And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;"

and given elsewhere in this volume (See _par_. 215, page 77), is an admirable specimen of what may be rendered in the form of an Enigma.

60. Hidden Words.

A riddle in which names of towns, persons, rivers, &c., are hidden or arranged, without transposition, in the midst of sentences which convey no suggestion of their presence. In the following sentence, for instance, there are hidden six Christian names:--Here is hid a name the people of Pisa acknowledge: work at each word, for there are worse things than to give the last s.h.i.+lling for bottled wine.--The names are Ida, Isaac, Kate, Seth, Ethel, Edwin. Great varieties of riddles, known as Buried Cities, Hidden Towns, &c., are formed on this principle, the words being sometimes placed so as to read backwards, or from right to left. The example given will, however, sufficiently explain the mode of operation.

61. Lipogram

from _leipein_, to leave out, and _gramma_, a letter--is a riddle in which a name or sentence is written without its vowels, as:

Thprffthpddngsthtng, The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Whnhnorslst ts--rlftd, Dths bt--sr rtrt fm nfmy.

"When honour's lost 'tis a relief to die, Death's but a sure retreat from infamy."

This riddle sometimes appears as a proverb.

"Fear's the white feather all cowards wear."

----s' th wht fthr ll cwrds----

62. Logogriph.

This is a riddle (_logos_, a word, and _griphos_, a riddle) in which a word is made to undergo several changes. These changes are brought about by the addition, subtraction, omission, or subst.i.tution of a letter or letters. The following, by the late Lord Macaulay, is an excellent example:

"Cut off my head, how singular I act: Cut off my tail, and plural I appear.

Cut off my head and tail--most curious fact, Although my middle's left, there's nothing there!

What is my head cut off?--a sounding sea!

What is my tail cut off?--a flowing river!

Amid their mingling deaths I fearless play Parent of softest sounds, though mute for ever!"

The answer is _cod_. Cut off its head and it is _od_ (odd, singular); its tail, and it is Co., plural, for company; head and tail, and it is o, nothing. Its head is a sounding C (sea), its tail a flowing D (river Dee), and amid their depths the cod may fearless play, parent of softest _sounds_ yet mute for ever.

63. Metagram,

a riddle in which the change of the initial letter produces a series of words of different meanings; from _meta_, implying change, and _gramma_, a letter. Thus:

I cover your head; change my head, and I set you to sleep; change it again and again, and with every change comes a new idea.--Cap, Nap, Gap, Sap, Hap, Map, Lap, Pap, Rap, Tap. This kind of riddle is also known as word-capping.

[GUNPOWDER MADE BY A MONK AT COLOGNE A.D.1330.]

64. Palindrome,

from the Greek _palin-dromos_, running back again. This is a word, sentence, or verse that reads the same both forwards and backwards--as, madam, level, reviver; live on no evil; love your treasure and treasure your love; you provoked Harry before Harry provoked you; servants respect masters when masters respect servants.

Numerous examples of Palindrome or reciprocal word-twisting exist in Latin and French; but in English it is difficult to get a sentence which will be exactly the same when read either way. The best example is the sentence which, referring to the first banishment of the Great Napoleon, makes him say, as to his power to conquer Europe:

"Able was I ere I saw Elba."

65. Puzzles

vary much. One of the simplest that we know is this:

Take away half of thirteen and let eight remain.

Write XIII on a slate, or on a piece of paper--rub out the lower half of the figures, and VIII will remain.

Upon the principle of the square-words, riddlers form Diagonals, Diamonds, Pyramids, Crosses, Stars, &c. These specimens will show their peculiarities: