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The device of riddling is common to most traditional cultures.

Maidens set riddles for their suitors:

‘What is sweeter than mead…?’

‘What is whiter than snow…?’

‘What is lighter than a spark…?’

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Antagonists use riddles to settle their disputes:

‘Forty white horses on a red hill first they gnash then they champ then they stand still…?’

‘What is blacker than the raven…?’

‘What is swifter than the wind…?’

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Divinities play hide and seek with their devotees within the miasmic form of riddles:

‘What dances on the surface of the water…?’

‘What good did Man find on earth that God did not…?’

‘What is sharper than the sword…?’

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