the good Wife should have used withal, and at which pilgrim she should
have begun her count so that no other than the five men should have been
counted out?" Of course, the point is to find the smallest number that
will have the desired effect.

17.--_The Monk's Puzzle._

The Monk that went with the party was a great lover of sport. "Greyhounds
he had as swift as fowl of flight: Of riding and of hunting for the hare
Was all his love, for no cost would he spare." One day he addressed the
pilgrims as follows:--

"There is a little matter that hath at times perplexed me greatly, though
certes it is of no great weight; yet may it serve to try the wits of some
that be cunning in such things. Nine kennels have I for the use of my
dogs, and they be put in the form of a square; though the one in the
middle I do never use, it not being of a useful nature. Now the riddle is
to find in how many different ways I may place my dogs in all or any of
the outside kennels so that the number of dogs on every side of the
square may be just ten." The small diagrams show four ways of doing it,
and though the fourth way is merely a reversal of the third, it counts as
different. Any kennels may be left empty. This puzzle was evidently a
variation of the ancient one of the Abbess and her Nuns.

[Illustration]

18.--_The Shipman's Puzzle._

Of this person we are told, "He knew well all the havens, as they were,
From Gothland to the Cape of Finisterre, And every creek in Brittany and
Spain: His barque ycleped was the _Magdalen_." The strange puzzle in
navigation that he propounded was as follows.

"Here be a chart," quoth the Shipman, "of five islands, with the
inhabitants of which I do trade. In each year my good ship doth sail over
every one of the ten courses depicted thereon, but never may she pass
along the same course twice in any year. Is there any among the company
who can tell me in how many different ways I may direct the _Magdalen's_
ten yearly voyages, always setting out from the same island?"

[Illustration: CHART of ye MAGDALEN]

19.--_The Puzzle of the Prioress._

The Prioress, who went by the name of Eglantine, is best remembered on
account of Chaucer's remark, "And French she spake full fair and
properly, After the school of Stratford-atte-Bow, For French of Paris was
to her unknow." But our puzzle has to do less with her character and
education than with her dress. "And thereon hung a brooch of gol