I am a plateau, holding forty-two sheep.

The sheep are held in six sets of seven. The first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh sheep are black. The remaining two are white.

Someone using me to my full potential can even cause people to cry.

What am I?

This riddle should strike a chord with people with similar interests as me. I write this with plenty of strings attached.

(In reply to last ditch thoughts by brianjn)

There is a small variety of 42-string instruments. brianjn mentions at least one of them in "last ditch thoughts", the zither. I found references to two zithers that can have 42-strings, the Bavarian zither and harp zither.

The zither-like instrument, the autoharp, also known as a fretless zither. Though I found no reference to a 42-string autoharp, there are varieties that have more than the usual 15 to 20 strings. For example, the Zimmermann Concert Grand has 49 strings.

There is also a 42-string guitar called a Pikasso guitar, but this is a "unique" instrument, as it was crafted for an individual who chose to play this triple-neck item.

The number of strings found on a harp also varies. Unlike the strings of the zither, autoharp, and pikasso guitar, the harp's strings are color-coded. All the C-strings are red/burgandy and the F-strings are black/dark-blue.

Because I had discovered that harps may have a different pattern of strings, even with those having the same number of strings, I made a guess that there might have been a time (when the strings were still made of sheep gut, and not nylon or metal as the usually are now) they may have been colored simply white and black. Yet Jack Lim has indicated this is not the answer.

There are a number of stringed instruments with black and white "keys". The piano being the most noted. Yet, I did not find any reference to a 42-key piano or piano-like instrument. Pianos, and their like, usually have 88-keys. Though I had found reference to some with as little as 33-keys. The majority of the keys of these instruments are white and not black, so do not match the pattern given in the riddle, thus I ruled out these instruments.  In addition, it is unknown to me whether these instruments ever had their strings made with sheep guts.

Posted by Dej Mar on 2006-06-30 04:41:33