Riddles

transcribed at

Riddles  [duchas:4800716]

Q. Riddle riddle row, it sits like a bow it has teeth like a cat and if you're a good scholar you will riddle me that
A.  A briar.
Q.  I have a knife of ivory it is pointed with misery it would kill a bull and slan a bear and conquer all the birds in the air.
A.  Hunger.
Q.   Long thing legless it comes to the door footless a woman within keep in your hen I am not afraid of your dog?
A. A worm
Q.  A round body and a square scull always swallowing and never full.
A. A chimney.
Q. It is deep, it is, it is,  damp it is, it is green round the bank it is, and fit for a Lord or a lady.
A. A grave.
Q. Why doesn't a clock strike thirdteen
A. Because it hasn't the face to do so.
Q. Why doesn't black sheep eat as much as

Riddles  [duchas:4800717]

sheep?
A. Because there are more white sheep out than black ones
Q. As white as a lilly as red as a rose the longer it stands the shorter it grows
A. A candle.
Q. Why doesn't a hen pick a pot.
A. Because she cannot lick it.
Q. What is always behind the time.
A. The back of the clock.
Q. What part of the cow goes to the water first
A. Her breath.
Q. When is a sheep like ink,
A.  When you take it up into a pen.
Q. What are the most difficult ships to conquer
A. Hardship.
Q. Why are bridges like faults.
A.  Because they are passed over.
Q. What is the silliest thing you could buy
A. A blanket for a bed of a river.
Q. I am fire a small and shining light.
A. Spark.
Q. Why is a wedding ring like eternity?

Riddles  [duchas:4800718]

A. Because it has neither beginning nor end.
Q. What is that is alive in front dead in the middle baptised behind
A. A man ploughing.
Q. What is it that is full and holds more after,
A. A pot of potatoes because it is full of potatoes and it holds more after.
Q. What weight is the moon,
A. Four quarters.
Q. As black as ink and as white as milk and it hops on the road like a marble stone?
A.  A magpie.
Q. Why does a crow look over a ditch,
A.  Because she cannot look under it.
Q. In the wood I got it, I sat down and fought it and against my will I bought it
A. A thorn in your foot.
Q. As I was going to the fair of toys I met

Riddles  [duchas:4800719]

a man with seven wifes, every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats and every cat had seven kittens, kittens, cats, wives and sacks how many was going to the fair of toys.
A. One man, because he met them when he was going to the fair.
Q. What did William Tell , junior say when his father shot the apple from his hand.
A. That was a narrow escape.
Q. A man bought two tons of coal at sixpence and paid ten shillings for carriage What did it come to?
A. Ashes.
Q. What is it which occurs once in a minute twice in a moment and never in a thousand years,
A. The letter M.
Q. White and black and red all over.
A. A newspaper.
Q. What word of five letters, if you take two from it leaves one
A. Stone  st-one
A. Why does a donkey eat thistles

Riddles  [duchas:4800720]

A. Because he is an ass.
Q. What bed is made nice, soft and warm, and is not made for sleeping on?
A.  A flower bed.
Q. Which day of the week is the strongest?
A. Sunday, because all the rest are weekdays.
Q. Why is a bad picture like weak tea?
A. Because it is not well drawn.
Q. If a yard of cloth makes a suit for a child what would make one for a man?
A. A tailor.
Q. Said a child to the father how does it come you are my father and I am not your son?
A. Because it was a daughter.
Q. There is a weaver in Athlone who has a brother a tailor and the tailor has no brother a weaver?
A. The weaver is a sister.
Q. Little thing, little thing, smaller than a mouse, has more windows than the big house?
A. A thimble.

Riddles  [duchas:4800721]

Q. What turns without moving?
A. Milk turning sour.
Q. What is a horse's shoe like?
A. It it is like the other one.
Q. Under the fire and over the fire and never touches the fire?
A. A cake in the oven.
Q. As I went out a slobbery gap I met my auntie Joanie, she had timber toes and an iron nose and upon my word she would frighten the crows.
A. A gun.
Q. As round as an apple, as plump as a ball, it can climb the church over steeple and all.
A. The sun.
Q. I had a roomful and I couldn't take a spoonful.
A. Smoke.
Q. It is all plain and never sick. 
A. A window.
Q. As I looked out the window I saw the dead carry the live.
A. A person on a bicycle.

Riddles  [duchas:4800722]

Q. Twenty sheep went out a gap, twenty more after that six, seven, ten, eleven, three and two, How many is that?
A. Five.
Q. Round the wood, round the wood naked dear boy which of ye will take it?
A. A woman churning.
Q. As round as an apple, as deep as a pail, it never cries out until it is caught by the tail.
A. A bell.
Q. There were three people going along the road in a motor car, two black men and a white man, and the two black men ate the white man, what was the number of the car?
A. Two eight one.
Q. Round the house all day, behind the door at night.
A. Broom.
Q. What is it always walks with its head down?
A. A nail in your boot.

Riddles  [duchas:4800723]

Q. Middy-noddy, round body, three feet and a wooden hat.
A. A pot.
Q. What is it, a hard working father, a lazy old mother, twelve little children all like one another?
A. A clock.
Q. If a person eats three quarters of an apple, What time is it?
A. Quarter to eat.
Q. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
     Humpty Dumpty got a great fall,
     All the King's horses and all the           King's men wouldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.
A. An egg.
Q. How many sticks goes to a crow's nest?
A. None, because they are all carried.
Q. What is always in your mouth and you never eat it?
A. Your tongue.
Q. What is the difference between a rainy day and a toothache?

Riddles  [duchas:4800724]

A. The toothache pours pain and the day pours rain.
Q. How many sides has a bucket?
A. It has two sides, inside and outside.
Q. What side is the handle of the jug?
A.  Outside.

Written by Kathleen Killeen
Rathpeak
Ballinasloe.

Gathered from Patrick Joseph Killeen
Rathpeak
Ballinasloe