| As to the many words which, though used and understood in good society, are yet not available as Links
owing to there being no other words into which they can be changed, it has been regarded as a matter
of indifference whether they are included or not.
The games of `Syzygies' and `Lanrick', invented about the same time as `Doublets', are nevertheless a
good deal more complicated, and have never been so popular. The rules which follow are taken from an
edition printed in 1893 for private circulation.
SYZYGIES
A WORD-PUZZLE
`Phoebus, what a name!'
1. DEFINITIONS DEFINITION 1
When two words contain the same set of one or more consecutive letters, a copy of it, placed in a parenthesis
between the two words, is called a `Syzygy', and is said to `yoke' one set to the other, and also to `yoke' each
letter of one set to the corresponding letter of the other set. Examples to Def. 1
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | | walrus | walrus | walrus | mine | | (a) | (l) | (wa) | (mi) | | swallow | swallow | swallow | mimic |
N.B.--In Ex. (2), the Syzygy may be regarded as yoking the `l' in `walrus' to whichever `l' in `swallow' the
writer may prefer. And in Ex. (4) the Syzygy may be regarded as yoking the `mi' in `mine' to whichever
`mi' in `mimic' the writer may prefer.
DEFINITION 2
A set of four or more words, with a Syzygy between every two is called a `Chain', of which all but the
end-words are called `Links'.
DEFINITION 3
In a `Syzygy-Problem' two words are given, which are to form the endwords of a Chain.
Example to Def. 3
If the given words are `walrus' and `carpenter' (the Problem might be stated in the form `Introduce Walrus
to Carpenter'), the following Chain would be a solution of the Problem:--
| WALRUS | | (rus) | | peruse | | (per) | | harper | | (arpe) | | CARPENTER |
DEFINITION 4
Every letter in a Chain, which is not yoked to some other, is called `waste'; but, if either of the end-words
contains more than 7 letters, the extra ones are not counted as waste.
Thus, in the above Chain, the `wal' in `walrus', the `e' in `peruse', the `h' in `harper', and the `c' and the `nter' in
`carpenter' are `waste': so that this Chain has 10 waste letters; but since 2 of the 5 waste letters in `carpenter'
are not counted as waste, the Chain is reckoned as having only 8 waste letters.
DEFINITION 5
When two words contain the same letter, but these two letters are forbidden to be yoked together, these
two letters are said to be `barred' with regard to each other.
2. RULES FOR MAKING CHAINS RULE 1
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