Swahili Tales/Enigmas
ENIGMAS.
"An Enigma!"————"Set your trap."
1. My house is large, it has no door.
Answer. An egg.
2. My hen has laid among thorns.
Ans. A pineapple.
3. Lay the mat, and let us eat kunazi [a small fruit].
Ans. The stars.
4. He goes out walking, he comes into the house, he says, "Mother, take me on your back."
Ans. A bedstead.
5. The Sultan's bowl is open.
Ans. A well.
6. My children have turbans; he who has no turban is no child of mine.
Ans. A fuu [a sort of fruit which grows in a cup something like an acorn cup].
7. Open the red eye.
Ans. The sun.
8. Going out to walk, I laid hold of the cow's tail.
Ans. A cocoanut ladle for scooping up water.
9. The dollar's worth of meat does not fill a cup.
Ans. A chain.
10. It is not set up, and does not stand of itself.
Ans. A chain.
11. I sowed my great field and reaped it, and my hand was not full.
Ans. Hair.
12. A scrape to Mecca.
Ans. Slipping.
13. Two nuts cross a river.
Ans. The eyes.