Canterbury Puzzle 11 · Seating the Pilgrims 11

"I trow there be not one among ye," quoth the Nun, on a later occasion, "that doth not know that many monks do oft pass the time in play at certain games, albeit they be not lawful for them. These games, such as cards and the game of chess, do they cunningly hide from the abbot's eye by putting them away in holes that they have cut out of the very hearts of great books that be upon their shelves. Shall the nun therefore be greatly blamed if she do likewise? I will show a little riddle game that we do sometimes play among ourselves when the good abbess doth hap to be away." The Nun then produced the eighteen cards that are shown in the illustration. She explained that the puzzle was so to arrange the cards in a pack, that by placing the uppermost one on the table, placing the next one at the bottom of the pack, the next one on the table, the next at the bottom of the pack, and so on, until all are on the table, the eighteen cards shall then read "CANTERBURY PILGRIMS." Of course each card must be placed on the table to the immediate right of the one that preceded it. It is easy enough if you work backwards, but the reader should try to arrive at the required order without doing this, or using any actual cards.

“我想你们当中没有一个人，”修女后来说道，“不知道许多僧侣经常通过玩某些游戏来打发时间，尽管这些游戏对他们来说是不合法的。这些游戏，例如纸牌和国际象棋，他们巧妙地将它们放在从书架上的伟大书籍的中心切出的孔中，以躲避院长的眼睛。修女应该吗？因此，如果她也这样做，我会受到很大的责备吗？我会展示一个小谜语游戏，当好心的女院长碰巧不在时，我们会玩这个游戏。”然后修女拿出了图中所示的十八张牌。她解释说，这个谜题是将卡片排列成一叠，将最上面的一张放在桌子上，将下一张放在卡片的底部，下一张放在桌子上，下一张放在卡片的底部，依此类推，直到所有卡片都放在桌子上，十八张卡片上应写着“坎特伯雷朝圣者”。当然，每张牌都必须放在桌子上紧邻前一张牌的右侧。如果您向后工作，这很容易，但是读者应该尝试在不这样做或不使用任何实际卡片的情况下达到所需的顺序。