John Bierhorst book cover (Native American Riddles)
Question: What wears a tight blouse? Answer: A tomato!
Here are some more, mostly collected by the Náhuatl scholar and author John Bierhorst in his book ‘Lightning Inside You and Other Native American Riddles’. Another source is ‘Zazan Tleino: Adivinanzas nahuas de ayer, hoy y siempre’ compiled by José Antonio Flores Farfán...
Q. What is it? A little mirror in a house made of fir branches.
A. The eye with its lashes.
Q. What is it? She plays music while moving her head.
A. A shaker (maraca).
Q. What lives in a black forest and dies on a white stone?
A. The lice we catch in our hair and crush on our fingernail.
Q. What is it that says to itself, ‘You go this way, I’ll go that way, and we’ll meet on the other side?’
A. A loincloth.
Q. What is it? A blue bowl filled with popcorn.
A. The sky with its stars.
Q. What is it whose ribs one scratches so it lies crying out?
A. A bone rasp.
Q. What is it that we enter in three places and leave by only one?
A. Our shirt.
Q. What is it that has ribs outside and is standing upright on the road?.
A. A carrying frame for loads.
Q. What is it that in one day becomes big with child?
A. A spindle.
Q.What is it always standing by the hearth curving upward?
A. A dog’s tail.
Q. What is it? A single red thing - it plays, talks and sings...
A. Your mouth.
Q. What is it that makes colourful tortillas while flying in the air?
A. A butterfly.
Q. What stay in caves until you blow them away?
A. Bogies in your nose!
Q. What says ‘You jump and I’ll jump’?
A. A pair of rubber drum beaters!
Q. What are they? Ten flat stones that we carry with us.
A. Our fingernails.
Jarin Jove
10th Jun 2024
A few of these are actually pretty funny. I’m sure some of the others would have been funny, if we understood the cultural context of the time. But a lot of these are clearly tended to be humorous and make people laugh. lol
Mexicolore
We agree!
Melody
16th Apr 2014
Not bad but do all of these relate to the Aztecs?
Mexicolore
Yes! All three writers mentioned above are serious scholars on the subject...
Rodolfo Leyva
11th Oct 2011
A most enjoyable web site. The material is so well developed!
yadira
7th May 2010
here’s one - what is a mountainside that has a spring of water in it? Our nose.
Mexicolore
Cheers, Yadira, thanks for this!
John Bierhorst book cover (Native American Riddles)