Lurker riddle solution?
The Renaissance Man
This riddle is part of - well, most of - the song 'Lurker' from Abacab.
Every now and then, I think about it again and try to solve it, and I've
never yet figured it out. After 15 years, it's really starting to
frustrate me.
Does anyone know the solution?
"Meanwhile, lurking by a stone in the mud, two eyes
looked to see what I was, and then something spoke,
and this is what it said to me:
"Clothes of brass and hair of brown,
Seldom need to breathe,
Don't need no wings to fly,
A heart of stone,
A fear of fire and water,
Who am I?"
--
Phil Stracchino Babylon Project System Administrator
ala...@babcom.com Creator, alt.support.survivors.prozac
The Renaissance Man http://www.babcom.com/jwz/alaric/
NRA, NRA-ILA, NRA-SATF, GOA, GOC, CRPA, CCRKBA, SAF, LEAA, NRAMC-SV
Jeremy S.
In article <4sr9n2$r...@babylon5.babcom.com>,
The Renaissance Man <ala...@babylon5.babcom.com> wrote:
>
>This riddle is part of - well, most of - the song 'Lurker' from Abacab.
>
>Every now and then, I think about it again and try to solve it, and I've
>never yet figured it out. After 15 years, it's really starting to
>frustrate me.
>
>Does anyone know the solution?
>
>
> "Meanwhile, lurking by a stone in the mud, two eyes
> looked to see what I was, and then something spoke,
> and this is what it said to me:
>
> "Clothes of brass and hair of brown,
> Seldom need to breathe,
> Don't need no wings to fly,
> A heart of stone,
> A fear of fire and water,
> Who am I?"
>
Man?
--Jeremy
brn...@ix.netcom.com
jere...@csc.umd.edu (Jeremy S.) wrote:
Suggestions that have been made previously include man, the earth, and
a gun (double barrelled shotgun, to be precise). Never has anyone
convinced me of their validity, though.
It's a mystery only three know....
Brian
Damon C Capehart
Jeremy S. (jere...@csc.umd.edu) wrote:
> In article <4sr9n2$r...@babylon5.babcom.com>,
> The Renaissance Man <ala...@babylon5.babcom.com> wrote:
> Man?
Huh? Don't know about you, but I tend to breathe quite a bit. Seems I
need to, right?
Damon Capehart | "I think we should eliminate semicolons from the
aka Le Monsieur | English language; nobody uses them anymore
dcap...@utdallas.edu | anyway." - one of Dilbert's anonymous coworkers
Scott McMahan - Softbase Systems
The Renaissance Man (ala...@babylon5.babcom.com) wrote:
: Every now and then, I think about it again and try to solve it, and I've
: never yet figured it out. After 15 years, it's really starting to
: frustrate me.
: Does anyone know the solution?
I've heard a lot of speculation and guesses, but I've never heard
anything that sounded reasonably plausible that would fit all the
parts of the riddle.
Scott
brn...@ix.netcom.com
Lily White <li...@crusher.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Maybe it's a CRAB. Its
>shell is like brass (ie: solid) and maybe crabs have a little brown hair
>someplace?! But then that don't fit with the flying part... DOH!!
A crab could work, but so could a clam (even better IMHO):
Brown hair could refer to their mouthparts--some are filter feeders,
and their filters resemble brown hair. Clams often have 'hair'-glue
like tendrils which glue them to rocks and such. They also are fliter
feeders and often have a fringe of 'hair' around the edges of their
shells. Fear of fire--obvious (ClamBake!). Fear of water--ever seen
a fiddler crab scuttle away from the surf and into its hole? And
clams, even though they can breathe underwater, bury themselves in to
sand, hiding from the water--a form of fear? As for flying, gulls
will pick up crabs/clams and drop them from great heights to crack
their shells and get to the goodies inside--no wings needed on the
crab/clam's part!!
A possibility, I'm not yet fully convinced...
Brian
Maestro
ala...@babylon5.babcom.com (The Renaissance Man) wrote:
>
>This riddle is part of - well, most of - the song 'Lurker' from Abacab.
>
>Every now and then, I think about it again and try to solve it, and I've
>never yet figured it out. After 15 years, it's really starting to
>frustrate me.
>
>Does anyone know the solution?
>
>
> "Meanwhile, lurking by a stone in the mud, two eyes
> looked to see what I was, and then something spoke,
> and this is what it said to me:
>
> "Clothes of brass and hair of brown,
> Seldom need to breathe,
> Don't need no wings to fly,
> A heart of stone,
> A fear of fire and water,
> Who am I?"
>
>
AAAARRRGH!! Why did I read this right before bedtime!?!?!?!?!
Socrates
I think the key is the "don't need no wings to fly" part. Obviously,
anything on earth that flies naturally has wings, except for man...
but, man does not fear fire and water, and the 'clothes of brass' part
suggests it is one individual. So, my guess would be that it is either
some sort of supernatural being that has appeared, or perhaps some kind
of alien. There are frequent mythological motifs and references in
Genesis' music, so my guess is that some stone hearted warrior god is
lurking about.... keep thinking, y'all!
Benson, Benson & Benson
> looked to see what I was, and then something spoke,
> and this is what it said to me:
>
> "Clothes of brass and hair of brown,
> Seldom need to breathe,
> Don't need no wings to fly,
> A heart of stone,
> A fear of fire and water,
> Who am I?"
>
>
I'd guess some sort of stone sculpture. Anything near the Nile fit the
description: winged beast; stone sculpture now or formerly clad in
brass or gold...