Solve these riddles, arranged from simple to difficult.

Problem

Solve these riddles, arranged from simple to difficult.

[ Editor: from the answer page of "The Riddle Sect" on the Web site "The
Ejooat Mystique" (1997); the sections are the page's. ]

Simple
------

1. I am always quite cold, but never do mind it.
   When I am looking for water, I always do find find it.
   Friends say that I look mean and pale,
   Whenever I go for a swim in my shining chainmail. Who am I?

2. What can run but never walks?
   Has a mouth but never talks?
   Has a bed but never sleeps?
   Has a head but never weeps?

3. Hands? I have three,
   But the newest handless be.

4. Alive without breath,
   As cold as death;
   Never thirsty, ever drinking,
   All in mail never clinking.

5. A mile from end to end,
   Yet as close to you as a friend.
   A precious commodity, freely given.
   Seen on the dead and on the living.
   Found on the rich, poor, short and tall,
   But shared among children most of all.

6. Tear one off and scratch my head, what once was red is black instead.

7. What is the beginning of eternity,
   the end of time and space,
   the beginning of every end
   and the end of every race?

8. I have streets but no pavement.
   I have cities but no buildings.
   I have forests yet no trees.
   I have rivers yet no water.
   What am I?

9. It's an offer of body, withdrawn in a stitch,
   Then reconsidered, with a short violent twitch.
   It's a raucous display! Revolution not strife.
   That, my dear friends, is the meaning of life.

10. Old Mother Twitchett
    has but one eye,
    And a long tail
    which she cand let fly;
    And every time
    she goes over a gap,
    She leaves a bit
    of her tail in a trap.

11. I move very slowly at an imperceptible rate,
    Although I take my time, I am never late.
    I accompany life, and survive past demise,
    I am viewed with esteem in many women's eyes.

12. We are little airy creatures,
    All of different voice and features.
    One of us in glass is set,
    One of us you'll find in a jet;
    The other you may see in tin,
    And the fourth a box within.
    If the fifth you should pursue,
    It can never fly from you.

13. What comes twice in a week;
    Once in a year;
    But never in a day?

14. What can you put in a barrel that will last as long as the barrel.

15. Twice ten are six of us,
    Six are but three of us,
    Nine are but four of us;
    What can we possibly be?
    Would you know more of us?
    Twelve are but six of us,
    Five are but four, do you see?


Moderate
--------

16. What is not alive but still is?

17. I am the heart that does not beat.
    If cut, I bleed without blood.
    I can fly, but have no wings.
    I can float, but have no fins.
    I can sing, but have no mouth.

18. I am sometimes strong and sometimes weak,
    But I am nobody's fool.
    For there is no language that I can't speak,
    Though I never went to school.

19. Always old, never new
    Never sad, sometimes blue
    Never empty, sometimes full
    Never pushes, always pulls

20. There is a thing that nothing is, and yet it has a name
    It's sometimes long and sometime's short,
    Joins our talks, joins our sport,
    And plays at every game

21. What is better than God and worse than the devil?
    Dead people eat it always and the living who eat it die slow.

22. You discard the outside and cook the inside.
    Then you eat the outside and discard the inside.

23. Face with a tree.
    Skin like the sea.
    A great beast I be.
    Yet vermin frightens me.

24. I have millions of eyes
    yet I live in darkness
    I have millions ears
    yet only four lobes
    I have two hemispheres and I rule the world.
    What am I?

25. What fills as it empties?

26. What goes up when rain comes down?

27. What has roots as nobody sees,
    Is taller than trees,
    Up, up it goes,
    And yet never grows?

28. Voiceless it cries,
    Windless flutters,
    Toothless bites,
    Mouthless mutters.

29. It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
    Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
    It lies behind stars and under hills,
    And empty holes it fills.
    It comes first and follows after,
    Ends life, kills laughter.

30. A box without hinges, key, or lid,
    Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

31. This thing all things devours:
    Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
    Gnaws iron, bites steel;
    Grinds hard stones to meal;
    Slays king, ruins town,
    And beats high mountain down.

32. If you have it,
    You want to share it.
    If you share it,
    You don't have it.
    What is it?

33. What has a head but cannot think?
    What has an eye but cannot see?
    What has an ear but cannot hear?
    What has a rib but is bone free?
    
    Try you to answer one or more,
    But seek the answer to all four.

34. I never was, am always to be,
    None ever saw me, nor ever will,
    And yet I am the confidence of all
    Who live and breathe on this terrestrial ball.

35. A warrior amongst the flowers
    he bears a thrusting sword
    he uses it when'er he must
    to defend his golden hoard. What is he?

36. A home of wood in a wooded place
    Built not by hand,
    but high above the earthen ground.
    It holds its pale blue gems. What is it?

37. I have legs but walk not
    A strong back but work not
    Two good arms but reach not
    A seat but sit and tarry not. What am I?

38. Nothing on the outside
    Nothing on the inside
    Light as a feather
    Yet ten men cannot lift it

39. What's too much for one;
    Enough for two;
    And nothing to three?

40. What is always in front of you, though you never see it?

41. What has six legs and flies south for the winter?

42. If you break me,
    I will not stop working.
    If you touch me,
    I may be snared.
    If you lose me,
    Nothing will matter.

43. What ancient invention allows people to see through walls and is
    still in
    use today?

44. He was born before his father
    He killed his mother
    And he married his sister
    Yet he did nothing wrong.
    How?

45. Dwarven brothers make it rain.
    Ruby rivers, crimson pain.

46. I have a face,
    Yet no senses.
    Time is of the essence,
    But I don't really care

47. What was waiting at the beginning of eternity,
    And waits at the end of time and space,
    It anxiously lives the beginning of every end
    And lives at the end of every race?

48. While wandering around a wondrous lake,
    I stumbled upon an festive Inn.
    I sat in a crowded corner
    And met two fishermen there within.
    
    They told me of their daily chores,
    And of their mighty sport,
    They described the bass, the trout, the salmon,
    And fishes of all sorts.
    
    I asked them how their outing fared,
    They responded, "Great, except...
    What we caught threw away, friend,
    And what we didn't catch, we kept".
    
    And with that said, they wandered off,
    While I pondered what they said.
    And here I sit, still perplexed and thinking,
    Pausing only to scratch my head.
    
    So, I think and think, as the stars fade out
    And as Night gives way to Day,
    What is it that they did not catch,
    but did not throw away?


Difficult
---------

49. What dries and dries but keeps getting wetter and wetter?

50. Who was born and died before his mother or father and buried in his
    grandmother's bosom?

51. One hundred and ten plus four (not 144)
    Of these are placed on the door
    Of time which has flown
    Of time which is known
    And of time which is yet to come

52. This word could describe a state of being, or someone receiving
    help. Remove the "i" and it either makes you think of shoes... or
    Crystal City, Virginia. What's the word?

53. Thirty white horses on a red hill,
    First they champ,
    Then they stamp,
    Then they stand still.

54. An eye in a blue face
    Saw an eye in a green face.
    "That eye is like to this eye"
    Said the first eye,
    "But in low place,
    Not in high place."

55. No-legs lay on one-leg, two-legs sat near on three-legs, four-legs
    got some.

56. What goes up a chimney down and down a chimney up?

57. What does one hide behind doors, and walls,
    but would destroy whole cities for?
    Bury in the deepest wells,
    but allows one to soar to the highest peaks?
    As fathomless as the deepest oceans,
    but as apparent as the nose on your face?

58. The Pope has it but he does not use it.
    Your dad has it but your mom uses it.
    Nuns don't need it.
    Your lady friend's husband has it and she uses it.

59. I am the black child of a white father;
    I give birth to tears of mourning in pupils that meet me,
    And at once on my birth I am dissolved into air.

60. When the day after tomorrow is yesterday, today will be as far from
    Wednesday as today was from Wednesday when the day before yesterday
    was tomorrow. What is the day after this day? (P.S. The answer is
    not tomorrow)