Lithuanian Riddles with Answers · Page 3

bridge

The bridge’s curved shape is compared to a hump. Its supports bear the great combined weight of people and loads.

salt

Salt is obtained from salty water by evaporating it with heat. Put back in water, it dissolves, as though returning to its mother.

knife

The knife has a metal blade and a wooden handle. The two different materials make one tool used for slicing bread.

threshing flail

A threshing flail’s wooden parts are joined by a flexible link and move like a bird’s neck and beak. Threshing with it produces rhythmic blows.

quill

A goose feather is prepared for writing by cutting it, cleaning it out and dipping it in ink. A written letter lets people communicate over a distance.

pillow

A pillow has a fabric cover and a filling of feathers. A living person rests on it for only part of the time.

sash

The two ends of a sash go around the waist and meet to be tied. Their movement is pictured as two sisters walking.

skilandis

Skilandis is a Lithuanian cured meat product whose casing is tied and hung up for smoking. The tying and the smoke point to the answer.

bead necklace

Red beads form a ring around the neck. The neck and mouth are likened to a well, and the beads to a line of animals.

glasses

The arms of the glasses rest behind the ears, the lenses sit before the eyes, and the bridge rests on the nose. The parts are likened to shafts, little wheels and a saddle.

bread

Bread can be cut with a knife like other soft things, but it is not a living body. The absence of blood points away from an animal and towards food.

bast shoes

Bast shoes, called vyžos in Lithuanian, are woven from strips of inner tree bark, giving them an interlaced surface. Once taken off, they are left under the bench.

train

A steam locomotive’s dark body, speed and loud sound are compared to a pot, a bird and a bellowing bull.

ink

Ink is kept in a glass container. Taken up with a quill and put into writing, it becomes words and so begins to speak.

sausage

A long, curled sausage resembles a snake. Its end is tied with thread to hold the filling inside the casing. Vytė vatė is the riddle’s playful opening phrase.

carrying yoke

A wooden carrying yoke rests on the shoulders, with loads suspended from its ends. Wood from the forest becomes a tool for distributing weight.

stocking

A stocking takes the shape of the leg when worn and collapses when taken off. Day and night are used to contrast a filled covering with an empty one.

bucket

A bucket has metal walls or hoops; the water inside is the lake, and the curved handle over the top is the bridge.

sieve

A sieve has many small openings in its bottom. Fine particles fall through them, and the openings are called little windows.

knitting needles

When knitting in the round, four needles hold the stitches while a fifth works them. As it replaces another needle, it too becomes caught in the knitting.

embers

The red embers are compared to little cockerels. A poker or another iron implement stirs them as though chasing them away. The source word raga is retained because the exact implement it names is uncertain.

candle

A tallow candle is made from animal fat and a flax wick. This version of the riddle calls the tallow flesh and the wick a soul.

hand quern

A hand quern crushes grain between stones. Grinding is likened to chewing, although the stones have no real teeth.

clock

A clock has no eyes, but its hands show people the time. The riddle distinguishes seeing from displaying information.

bed

A person lies in bed at night, while by day it is usually empty. Soul here means the living person using it.

road

A long road resembles a belt. It cannot be rolled up like a movable leather object because it stretches across the ground.

harrow

The teeth of a harrow resemble many horns. The tool is pictured as an unusual goat with a multitude of horns.

rake

A rake’s teeth move through the grass in one sweep. Its handle is likened to a single rein guiding the whole row.

needle

A needle is small, but it is hard to sew clothing without one. The work of a single tool is magnified into clothing the whole world.

bell

The bell’s metal body is its head, and the rope that moves it is its tail. The riddle names their materials directly.

rake

Hay gathered with a rake is piled into a large haystack. The piled hay is compared to a castle that has been built. Šepetys means a brush; the accompanying word repetys is retained from the original rhythmic phrase.

loom

The shuttle darts between the loom’s threads like a pike diving. The loom’s wooden frame and moving parts rumble, suggesting a whole forest.

drill

A drill turns as it moves deeper into the material. The riddle sets the turning motion alongside the direction of drilling.

sieve

A sieve’s holes are part of its intended design, not signs of wear. They allow particles of different sizes to be separated.

pitchfork

A pitchfork has one handle and several prongs at the other end. The branching parts of one tool are described as several ends.

mirror

A mirror reflects the objects and people in front of it. It does not reproduce its own surface as a separate image.

bottle

The bottle’s glass body is pictured as a torso, and its paper label as an apron. Kvartugėlis is a Lithuanian dialect word for an apron.

candle

A burning candle gradually uses up its own tallow or wax. Its disappearing body is pictured as something eating itself.

ladle

Scooping with a ladle stirs the liquid and makes it gurgle; when the ladle is lifted out, some liquid drips off. The sound and dripping reveal the action.

rope

A rope is twisted from many fibres or threads. The repeated hundred stresses a great number rather than an exact count used in making it.