R is for...

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the participants!

For this, my 5th year doing the Challenge, it's the

A to Z of Anansi the spider.

R is for Riddles

In my book, Anansi and Company, I have included, after each story, a traditional riddle that comes directly from Martha Warren Beckwith's book, Jamaica Anansi Stories.

Some riddles have a European flavor to them as in this one:

My father have twenty-five white horses in a row, if one trot all trot, if one gallop all gallop, if one stop all stop, and one cannot go on without the other.

It's very similar to: Thirty white horses on a red hill. Now they champ, now they stamp, now they stand still.

The answer, of course, is TEETH.

But many of the riddles are decidedly West Indian: My father have a thing in his yard, run off cover up the whole ground. The answer is a pumpkin vine, or the squash I posted about under P.

Here are some riddles for you to try. I'll post the answers on Wednesday the 23rd under T.

As a bonus I'm offering a free e-copy for Kindle of Anansi and Company! All you have to do is answer one or all of the riddles. The more you answer correctly the more chances you have of winning. I'll put all the correct answers (along with your name) in a hat and draw a winner. So Give it a try!

If there is a winner, I will announce it on Wednesday!

1.) My father has a tree full of apples and not a man can count them. What are they?

2.) My mother put on a pot of food to boil; the top boil before the bottom. What is it?

This last riddle is one that was told to me by an elderly St. Thomian lady and is one she heard as a child.

3.) I walk up a hill. I meet a man. I cut off he head. I poke out he eyes. I drink he blood. I eat he flesh. I throw away he bones. What am I?