I went down to Grandfather's hall. There I heard an old man call. His beard was flesh; his mouth was horn; And such a creature was never born. (from GRANNY, WILL YOUR DOG BITE AND OTHER MOUNTAIN RHYMES, Gerald Milnes, 1990, collected in WV.) Below is a longer, but broken-down, non-rhyming variant of the same riddle: He was neither No-e* nor No-e's son, but was with No-e in the Ark. His robe was neither silk nor wool. His beard and hair they both were flesh. Never married, he had many wives. And a short sermon that once he preached that made a man go out and weep. * Noah (AMERICAN FOLK TALES AND SONGS, by Richard Chase, 1956) Kent HINT: The "short sermon that once he preached" is mentioned in Matthew 26:75.
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