1917. 1 Riddles Current in the District of Sylhet. 1 1 i > 



Translation. 



(25) The king's son is lying dead, (and there is nobody) to 

 weep (for him). 



The king's courtyard is lying (unswept), (and there is no- 

 body to sweep it) . 



The flowers have bloomed, and there is no florist to pluck 

 them. 



Answer. — The moon — the sky — the star 



Note . 



The comparison of the moon with the king's dead son seems 

 to me to be far-fetched. But the likening of the sky to th* 

 king's unswept courtyard, and that of the stars to the bloom- 

 ing flowers in a garden, seem to me to be apt The last-men- 

 tioned concept is a beautiful one. 



On the contrary, the following Parsee riddles about th< 

 sun and the moon and the stars, published at pages 97 and 9S 

 of Vol. X. of the Bombay Anthropological Society's Journal. 

 appear to be more apposite : — 



(a) t: The brother goes out for a walk in the morning, and 

 the sister strolls about at night." Answer.— The Sun and 

 the Moon. Here the Sun is spoken of as the brother, and the 

 Moon as the sister— a relationship which is supposed by many 

 races of people to exist. 



(b) A plateful of mustard (seeds) which could not be 

 -counted by anybody." Answer.— The stars. Here the sky i 

 likened to a plate, and the stars therein to mustard seeds. This 

 Parsee riddle has close parallels in the following Bengali and 

 Hindi riddles about the stars which have been published by me 

 at page 46 of Vol. VII. of the Bombay Anthropological Society* 



Journal : 



(c) " There is one trayfui of fcreca-nuts, which the trader 

 ^ven cannot count." Answer. — The stars 



{d) " A handful of parched rice scattered over the whol- 

 yard." Answer. — The stars. 



*rf*isT q**^ mw ^ fwSr m^ » 



Translation. 



stolen 



(26) The light is strong and fierce ; the light has 



been 



Who can extinguish the fi 

 \nswer. — The sun's rays. 



