Artifaxis is updated on Tuesday and Friday
We have a puzzle here we're hoping someone will have a solution to. For Christmas, we got a lovely Japanese calendar featuring cute animals - mainly, but not always, cats. The picture for January and February (Japanese calendars seem to run to only 6 pictures) is a board game of the old kind, where you throw dice to move along and occasionally land on squares which do something - in this case, they're all related to nursery rhymes. It's an excessively cute illustration, since all the images are little cats, but it's the instructions on one particular square which are confusing. Most of them are written in slightly odd English, but this one is plain weird. As an example of the English, the other square instructions are listed below (and none of the typos are mine):
Polly make tea to me - rest once
Rat bite at malt - start afresh
Pumpkin was a bumper crop! Go on a place
London Bridge was finished - take a short cut
Falling baby - go back to 2
Cook Robin was killed - start afresh (with a little crying cat - sad!)
Run run run Wee Willie Winkie - cast a die once more
Fall from a great wall - rest two time
A cupbord become empty - go back to 8
They lost their mittens - go back 5 places
('they' in this case are called Chin, Ton and Shan)
This fiddle is able to out of tune - rest one time
Go and see a Queen - go on 3 places
Bowl tumble down - rest one time
A cake was baked very taste! - go on 1 place
Now, I'm a little confused about the bowl - I don't recognise the nursery rhyme - but I have no idea about the following final incantation, which bars the way to the end, where the Queen cat has a tray of tarts. It says:
He has not been able to together a love horry night - start afresh
Does anyone have any idea what nursery rhyme that is? I really, really want to know what a "love horry night" is. If it's any help, the cat is sitting down looking sulky/sneaky, with a tiny Christmas tree next to it.
Thanks :)
- Sun Kitten, 10th January '06
We have a puzzle here we're hoping someone will have a solution to. For Christmas, we got a lovely Japanese calendar featuring cute animals - mainly, but not always, cats. The picture for January and February (Japanese calendars seem to run to only 6 pictures) is a board game of the old kind, where you throw dice to move along and occasionally land on squares which do something - in this case, they're all related to nursery rhymes. It's an excessively cute illustration, since all the images are little cats, but it's the instructions on one particular square which are confusing. Most of them are written in slightly odd English, but this one is plain weird. As an example of the English, the other square instructions are listed below (and none of the typos are mine):
Polly make tea to me - rest once
Rat bite at malt - start afresh
Pumpkin was a bumper crop! Go on a place
London Bridge was finished - take a short cut
Falling baby - go back to 2
Cook Robin was killed - start afresh (with a little crying cat - sad!)
Run run run Wee Willie Winkie - cast a die once more
Fall from a great wall - rest two time
A cupbord become empty - go back to 8
They lost their mittens - go back 5 places
('they' in this case are called Chin, Ton and Shan)
This fiddle is able to out of tune - rest one time
Go and see a Queen - go on 3 places
Bowl tumble down - rest one time
A cake was baked very taste! - go on 1 place
Now, I'm a little confused about the bowl - I don't recognise the nursery rhyme - but I have no idea about the following final incantation, which bars the way to the end, where the Queen cat has a tray of tarts. It says:
He has not been able to together a love horry night - start afresh
Does anyone have any idea what nursery rhyme that is? I really, really want to know what a "love horry night" is. If it's any help, the cat is sitting down looking sulky/sneaky, with a tiny Christmas tree next to it.
Thanks :)
- Sun Kitten, 10th January '06
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