Note 63 — RIDDLES.
Reading edition
Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):
XLIV. I came to a tree where were apples; I eat no apples, I gave away no apples, nor I left no apples behinde me; and yet I eat, gave away, and left behind me.
—Three apples. I eat, give away, and leave one apple.
Holme riddles, 237, [135].
Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Campbell), II, 419:
A man went eyeless to a tree where there were apples. He didn’t leave apples on it, and he didn’t take apples off.
—There were two and he took one. ↑