1904] 
63 
P. Wagner —Kolaricin Riddles. 
It is worth while to gather unwritten material; to bring such a 
contribution is the intention of the following pages. 
On investigation I found amongst the Mundari-speaking people a 
great predilection for puzzling questions of their own. Most of them 
sound so strange that they can scarcely be understood without expla¬ 
nation. Some may have been accepted from other tribes, but those 
which seemed to me to be doubtful in their origin, have been excluded. 
I give here a collection of 100, a number which could easily be 
doubled.. 
The horizon is very limited : the house, the field, the daily work, 
animals, plants, trees, the weather and the sky, that is nearly all they 
speak about; yet interesting, though sometimes very strange, are the 
comparisons they use. 
1. Question .—Honk 5 parpir, enga 
teteya P 
Answer —Jo; jdaru. 
2. Q .—Engate do lapua, honte 
do daguma ? 
A. —Bengra. 
3. Q .—Merom doe buruma (tola- 
kangia), jora doe atinga ? 
A. —Kakru. 
4 Q .—Dubme dirra, disuming 
honortingtana ? 
A. —Kakru. 
5. Q .—Sirmare gotkoa, otere 
udarkoa? 
A. —Madukam. 
6. Q •—Mayom do sibil a, jilu d5 
harada ? 
A. —Madukam. 
The children fly away,, the mother 
remains ? 
The fruit; the tree. 
The mother (is) weak, the child 
strong ? 
A bulbiferous plant; the wither¬ 
ing herb being the weak 
mother, the bulk the strong 
child. 
The lamb is lying down (has been 
tied), the string (scil. by which 
it has been tied), is ascending ? 
The cucumber. 
Sit down, fat fellow, I go fur¬ 
ther to the country ? 
The cucumber (it is spoken to 
by the creeper.) 
Above ( lit. in heaven) flocks, 
beneath (lit. on earth) they ga¬ 
ther them (as they gather the 
cows and sheep at noon and 
at sunset, to drive them home, 
in flocks) ? 
The flower of the Mahua tree. 
The blood is sweet, the flesh 
bitter ? 
The flower of the Mahua tree. 
