The Technique of the Mystery Story | Page 4

puzzles or mysteries.

2. Early Riddles
The enjoyment of puzzles or mysteries is as old as humanity itself.
First there is the ancient Riddle, that draws upon the imagination and
play of fancy. Readers will remember the riddle of the Sphinx, the
monster of B?otia, who propounded enigmas to the inhabitants and
devoured them if they failed to solve them. It was said that the Sphinx
would destroy herself if this one of her riddles were ever correctly
answered: "What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two at
noon, and three in the evening?" It was explained by ?dipus, who
pointed out that man walked on his hands and feet in the morning of
life, at the noon of life he walked erect, and in the evening of his days
he supported his infirmities with a stick. When the Sphinx heard this
explanation, she dashed her head against a rock and immediately
expired. Puzzle solvers may be really useful on occasion.
Then there is the riddle propounded by Samson. It is perhaps the first
prize competition in this line on record, the prize being thirty sheets
and thirty changes of garments for a correct solution. The riddle was
this: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth
sweetness." The answer was, "A honeycomb in the body of a dead
lion."
The classic "Riddle of the Sphinx" is mythological rather than
historical, and belongs to the Grecian deity, not the Egyptian Sphinx.
Its date is unauthenticated, but at least it wears the halo of antiquity, for
Sophocles wrote of it in the Fourth Century B.C.
Samson has been called the Father of Riddles, but merely because his
famous riddle was among the first to creep into print. Doubtless older
and better ones were buried in an oblivion from which they can never
be disinterred.

"Out of the eater," propounded 1200 B.C., does not strike us as an
exquisitely clever conceit, but it embodies the true principle of the
riddle and of the riddle story. The asker already knew the solution, and
that was why the guessers strove to attain a re-solution.
In those days riddles were proposed at wedding feasts and other
social gatherings, a practice still obtaining to a degree.
The Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, "to prove him with hard
questions." And Solomon, in his turn was addicted to the giving of
riddles to Hiram, King of Tyre, who was fined for those he failed to
guess.
Among the Egyptians, puzzling was a religious rite and the Sphinx
was their goddess. We are told that such was the esoteric religion of the
Egyptians that all the priests were riddlers and their religion one vast
enigma.
Other recorded ancient riddles are of interest to the antiquarian, but
enough has been said here to prove the inherent love of Question and
Answer in man's mind from the earliest ages. From earlier than Samson
to later than Sam Loyd the puzzle has held its own among mental
activities.
And puzzle, in its broader sense includes all branches of mystery or
detective stories as well as mere riddles or conundrums.
The Century Dictionary defines puzzle as "A riddle, toy or
contrivance which is designed to try one's ingenuity."

3. The Passion for Solving Mysteries
This is the crux of the mystery story. It is designed to try the reader's
ingenuity at re-solution. The exercise of this tried ingenuity is what
gives the entertainment or amusement found in a mystery story.
The type of mentality or the kind of mental bias that gives pleasure in

puzzling is the same in author and reader. The talent that knits is the
same talent that unravels. The propounder uses the same kind of
acumen as the guesser, and his pleasure in doing so is of the same sort.
It is difficult to say just what this mental faculty is, but we who
possess it know that its exercise gives us exquisite enjoyment.
As the athlete rejoices in his muscular prowess, as the musician
rejoices in the melodies he makes, as the artist glories in his painted
masterpiece, yea, even as the clam is notoriously happy in his own
element, so the mental acrobat revels in concentrating all his brain
power on an analytical problem.
Lowell declared that Poe had two of the prime qualities of genius, --
"a faculty of vigorous yet minute