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Riddle mi dis, riddle mi dat, guess mi dis riddle and paraps not. If you are a bonafide Jamaican, that should trigger some excitement in you as you try to remember a riddle.
One easily remembers Ring Ding, when Louise Bennett ’Miss Lou’ would throw back her head with unbridled laughter say “Riggle mi dis, riggle mi dat, guess mi dis riggle an paraps not.”Then she would pause, her eyes lighting up and her face would have this smug little look of “I know something that you don’t know” before she launched into “Up chincherry, down chincherry, not a man can climb chincherry. Who know di answer to dat riggle?” Then every Jamaican, those in the television studio at JBC and those at home watching the TV would be snapping fingers, bussing their brains, guessing and guessing, trying to answer the riddle. Miss Lou would be laughing, that infectious laugh which made everybody want to get on the laugh bandwagon, and when she had had enough of the wrong answers she would say, still laughing “Oonoo want di answer?”, then all of us, in the studio and those glued to the TV would we both at “Up chincherry, down chincherry, not a man can climb chincherry. Oonoo still doan know? ... Smoke!!!” and everyone would be laughing.
So now Chat-Bout wants to challenge your riddle memory. Yuh ready? Okay… Riddle mi dis, riddle mi dat, guess mi dis riddle and paraps not?
1. Prime Minister, Doctor, Governor General… which one wear di biggest hat?
2. What deh front a woman and backa cow?
3. Four foot siddung under four foot a wait fi four foot.
4. Hell a top, hell a bottom, hallelujah eena di miggle.
5. A cow and a donkey are coming round the corner.They crash. Which one is wrong?
6. Di longer it tan (stay) di shorter it get.
7. If tree seven is twentyone, how much is seven trees?
8. Why is every river rich?
9. Mi doan weigh anything but mi can sink di biggest ship.
10. Sweet water tan up.
11. One slice a yam serve di whole world.
12. Missis Queen dress tear, but no needle kyaan sew it.
13. Mi father have a bull cow and him milk him anytime. When him don’t milk him?
14. Green as grass, macka lacka.
15. Yuh ever see cow head wid two yie (eyes)?
16. How much different corner from Morant Point to Negril Point?
17. Whoofa (whose) bed always wet?
18. Walking down di road mi see one green house, inside it was one white house and inside that one red house with plenty lickle brown window. What is that?
19. Gravel a top, gravel a bottom, tell di devil say mi a come.
20. Why dawg kyaan stay eena one yard?
21. Why trains an clothes related?
22. Four brothers went on a trip, two before and two behind. Try as them might, the two behind could never catch up the two in front.
23. What always a go up, but never come down?
24. Little Miss Mary tear her yellow dress and nobody kyaan fix it.
25. Jig a room, jig a hall, tan up eena corner.
26. Round like a biscuit, busy like a bee.
27. What go up but never come down?
28. Round di road di rugged rascal runs, how many ‘r’s in that?
29. Mi grandfather have a rope eena him yard and every day it grow longer.
30. Put mi on kimbo, teck mi off kimbo, wash mi kimbo same way.
31. Going to town or coming from town, mi face still turn to town.
32. Parson and him daughter go pon trip, teacher and him wife go to. How much people go pon trip?
33. Why wi have to go to bed?
34. Old England dead, and him body kyaan rotten.
35. Which two letters eena di alphabet, never sick yet?
36. Why it so hard to catch a guinea pig by him tail?
37. Mi see yuh but mi kyaan touch yuh or teck yuh out?
38. Mi father have one horse, but him ongle ride him by di tail.
39. If 60 seconds meck one minute, 60 minutes meck one hour, 24 hours meck one day, seven days meck… how many seconds are in one month?
40. Patch by patch and no have no seam.
41. King teck off him crown to only one man. Who?
42. Dirt drop eena well, well full up.
43. Why di donkey go over di mountain?
44. Two foot, pon four foot, looking for six foot.
45. Which finga yuh eat and then lick yuh finga?
46. What God gi yuh two time and di third time yuh haffi buy?.
47. Yuh never want it, but when yuh get it, yuh take such good care of it.
48. What have three eye but kyaan see.
49. Send bwoy fi call doctor, doctor come before bwoy.
50. Man give woman a golden vessel fi hold flesh and blood.
51. Mi meet a man who have button all over him body.
52. Bruck back Ginny, go down hill and kyaan come back up.
53. Mi father have a cow, all a dem white and a big red one.
54. Mi madda have a house with three door. Only one can open.
55. What is the difference between a plantain and a tailor
56. Yuh eat di fruit but sometimes it get violent
57. Mi madda have a pretty house, but is one stick hold it up
58. Every mawnin mi get up, mi kimbo
59. Mi father have plenty servant and dem all wear black cap
60. What run all day long but never walk
61. Everywhere mi go, a yuh dat, everyting mi do, a yuh dat
62. Mi father have a horse, that him ongle ride when di horse back sore.
63. Up chincherry, down chincherry, not a man can climb chincherry
64. Mi father build a house but hi only use one nail. What is that?
65. Di lady drop her lace handkerchief, but nobody pick it up
66. Mi madda have three pickney, and all a dem head black
67. Rope run, horse stan up
68. Legs mi have, but mi cannot walk
69. Mi father have a whole heap of pickney, but all of them only have one eye
70. What chicken have that hen doan have
71. Mi belong to somebody, mi noh have no life, but mi moving and walking
72. A plane leave Kingston to go to Negril and crash near Ocho Rios. Which part yuh would bury the survivors?
73. Damp and deep, anyone kyan sleep.
74. Which bud fly and still give suck.
75. Yuh mout so big, and yet yuh kyaan talk.
76. It cut pon table but it kyaan eat.
77. Mi father have something at him yard what shine at king kitchen door.
78. All doctor go a university except one doctor.
79. If a fowl eat stringy mango, and Bombay mango, which one hitch eena him teeth?
80. It have a head, it have a mouth, but it kyaan wear hat and no have no teet.
81. Mi put yuh in di fridge hot and mi teck yuh out, yuh hot same way.
82. Rastaman eena di house but him hair outside.
83. What have tongue but kyaan talk?
84. How many sides every bottle have?
85. Inside di shell is a cup, inside di cup is a bite, inside di bite is a sup.
86. Mi father have a horse dat him hold by di ears
87. What kyan a white fowl do that a black fowl cannot do?
88. What police and train do every day?
89. Four dawg a race go Kingston, and three run and leave one behind. What time is it?
90. Room full all full, kyaan get a spoonful.
91. Bus mi head, mi white flesh show and mi blood flow.
92. Mi grandfather have a water pan dat full when it drizzle but empty when yuh have heavy rain?
93. Go up white and come down yellow
94. Mi father have a well at him yard, and one grain a sand meck it muddy.
Answers to Riddles
1. Di one with di biggest head
2. The letter ‘W’
3. Puss sitting under table a wait for rat
4. Potato or cornmeal pudden (pone), made in a traditional oven with coals on top and at the bottom
5. The cow, because he should have blown his horn
6. Candle
7. A small woodland
8. Because every river has two banks
9. Complain (complaint)
10. Sugar cane
11. The moon
12. Banana or plantain leaf
13. Yuh kyaan milk a bull
14. Soursop (macca is the Jamaican equivalent to prickle/thorn)
15. Yes, wid mi own two eyes
16. Two : left corner and right corner
17. River
18. Watermelon
19. River
20. Because three feet make one yard and a dawg has four feet
21. They both spend a lot of time on lines.
22. The wheels on the car
23. Yuh age
24. Ripe banana
25. Broom
26. A clock or watch
27. Smoke
28. None, there are no ‘r’s in the word ‘that’
29. Melon or pumpkin vine
30. Ole time iron pot (jester pot)
31. Tree (has no back or front)
32. Three. Parson daughter is teacher wife
33. Because di bed kyaan come to us
34. Broken glass bottle
35. OK
36. Because him don’t have any
37. Mirror
38. Smoking pipe
39. Two : second and twenty second
40. Lettuce or cabbage
41. Barber
42. Yuh eye
43. Because it can’t go under it
44. Bird on the back of a cow looking for ticks (cattle egret)
45. A finger of banana
46. Teeth
47. Sore foot
48. Dry coconut in shell ( the shell has three eyes)
49. Picking fruit from a tree. (You climb the tree, pick and the fruit falls before you get down)
50. A ring
51. Pineapple
52. Waterfall
53. Teeth and tongue
54. Dry coconut eena shell (three eyes, but only one soft enough to open)
55. The plantain must fit to cut and the tailor must cut to fit
56. Banana and plantain, when dem shoot
57. Umbrella
58. Ackee
59. Chimmy (chamber pot, potty)
60. River or stream
61. Yuh shadow
62. The roof of the house (father goes up there when it needs fixing)
63. Smoke
64. Woodpecker
65. Spit
66. Ackee (the ackee pod has three pegs, each with one seed)
67. Melon or pumpkin
68. Tables and chairs
69. Needle
70. Noodle (chicken noodle)
71. Yuh shadow
72. You don’t bury survivors
73. Grave
74. Ratbat
75. Water jar
76. A deck of cards
77. The moon
78. Doctor bud
79. None of dem, fowl don’t have teeth
80. River
81. Pepper
82. Corn
83. Shoes
84. Two : inside and outside
85. Coconut
86. A cooking pot
87. Lay an egg to match its colour
88. They go from station to station.
89. Three past one
90. Smoke
91. Dry coconut
92. Leaves (they catch rain water in a drizzle, but can’t hold the weight of water from heavy rain)
93. Egg
94. Eye
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