_"Elementa sex," &c._--Perhaps one of your readers, given to such trifles,
will hazard a guess at the solution, if not at the author, of the
subjoined:

"Elementa sex me proferent totam tibi;
Totam hanc, lucernis si tepent fungi, vides,
Accisa senibus suppetit saltantibus,
Levetur, armis adfremunt Horatii;
Facienda res est omnibus, si fit minor,
Es, quod relinquis deinde, si subtraxeris;
Si rite tandem quaeritas originem,
Ad sibilum, vix ad sonum, reverteris."

EFFIGY.

_"Elementa sex," &c._ (Vol. vii., p. 572.).--The answer to the Latin riddle
propounded by your correspondent EFFIGY, seems to be the word _putres_;
divided into _utres_, _tres_, _res_, _es_, and the letter _s_.

The allusion in _putres_ is to Virgil, _Georgic_, i. 392.; and in _utres_
probably to _Georgic_, ii. 384.: the rest is patent enough.

I send this response to save others from the trouble of seeking an answer,
and being disappointed at their profitless labours. If I may venture a
guess at its author, I should be inclined to ascribe it to some idle
schoolboy, or perhaps schoolmaster, who deserved to be whipped for their
pains.

C. W. B.