Riddles

The INEL project comprises an extensive base of diverse data, such as traditions, poems, songs and riddles. Here we present a curated collection of riddles in different languages and hope to not only get you guessing and thinking, but perhaps also to amaze you from time to time.

Kamas riddles

On a mountain a cauldron is boiling.

An anthill.

When it is lying down, it is smaller than a cat, when it is standing up, he is taller than a horse.

The saddle.

Four men are wearing one cap.

A table.

I will stand under the sun and blow my golden horn; I will stand under the moon and blow my silver horn.

Goose and krain.

It has neither foot nor hand and yet it climbs up the mountain.

A wildfire.

A raggy man is sitting, if you eat this man, you will cry.

An onion.

Mansi riddles

A furry man lies on a stove in winter and summer.

A cat.

It is scattered all over the city and nobody can collect it.

Stars are scattered across the sky.

I walk in the water and leave no trace.

A boat.

During the day it hangs, at night it is stuck in a hole.

The door lock.

Without a hand, without a leg, looking up to the sky.

A grain of cereal.

The head of a white man looks down from the sky.

The moon.

Four people peeing in a hole.

A cow's udder.

Ebony wants to fart.

A weapon.

Ulcha riddles

Flying like a bird, he kills an animal.

An arrow.

A man who doesn't move is always thin; if he jumps, he gets fat.

The spindle.

A shaggy dog crosses the Amur River barking.

A crack in the ice.

A dark flock of crows flies back and forth.

Clouds in the sky.

A seagull takes off - a hundred people fall.

A scythe mows the grass.

White flour is afraid of heat.

The snow.

A man stands day and night with a hole in his head; whatever he eats, he lets it all out again.

A pipe.

A red man drags, many white men chop.

The tongue and teeth.

A frog sits in the gap between two rocks.

The nose.

There are spruce trees around the lake.

The eyelashes.

Two sails cannot round a cliff.

The ears.