All About Pipers Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pig

'Tom, Tom, the piper's son; stole a pig and away did run' are the first two lines of the rhyme. Although it sounds like the animal, it seems that the pig that Tom stole was some kind of pie, which he managed to eat before being punished for being so naughty.

Answer: Be quiet

Your parents might have said this to you if you kept interrupting them. The saying seems to come from being on ship, where pipes are used to signal to sailors what they should be doing. 'Pipe down' meant to go below decks.

The opposite saying also exists - 'pipe up' means to say something, often unexpectedly, when you've been quiet for a while.

Answer: Scotland

The sound of the bagpipes can be quite eerie, and they were often played by soldiers going into battle. You might be surprised to know that bagpipes have been played on some hit records, including 'Mull of Kintyre', by Wings and on 'It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)' by AC/DC. If you ask most people where bagpipes come from, they will say 'Scotland', or maybe 'Ireland', even though many other countries have traditional versions of the instrument.

Answer: Native Americans

The peace pipe used to crop up a lot in films set in the American Wild West, when pioneers were travelling into the lands where the Native Americans lived. It's not a myth, but the peace pipe is not really the best name as the pipe was used for much more than just agreeing a peace treaty.

It is used in many ceremonies, including religious ones, by many different tribes and can be known by a different names in each tribe.

Answer: Hamelin

The story is folklore, and is one of many collected by the Grimm Brothers. The poet Robert Browning also wrote about it in a long poem of 1842. The piper was employed to remove all the rats from Hamelin, which he did by playing his magic pipe. When the townspeople refused to pay him for his work, the piper charmed away all the children as their punishment.

Answer: Cake

Icing, which is sometimes called frosting in America, is used to decorate cakes. Icing is made from very fine sugar mixed with water while frosting usually has butter or margarine in it and can also be called buttercream. No matter what you call it, piping it around cakes makes them look good and taste even better.

Answer: Bird

The sandpiper is a kind of wading bird, which looks for its food in the mud and damp sand along the sea shore. They usually have long legs so that they don't get their feathers too wet while hunting. They are in the same family as the curlews and snipes.

Answer: Plumber

While you might think that piper is a good name for the person who fixes pipes, a piper is actually someone who plays pipes, or bagpipes. If you have a problem with your water pipes, you need to call a plumber. The name comes from plumbum, the Latin word for lead, because most pipes were originally made from lead.

Answer: Old King Cole

This is a very old nursery rhyme, dating back to at least the early 1700s. I'm sure you've heard it - 'Old King Cole was a merry old soul; and a merry old soul was he. He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl, and he called for his fiddlers three'. Nobody is sure whether the pipe was a musical one or one for smoking tobacco. For the sake of his health, we'll hope he was wanting to play a tune.

Answer: Pickled peppers

I don't think peppers are pickled while they are still growing, but it makes a good tongue twister. The whole of it is 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; a peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked'.

The more times you try to say it, the more of a tangle you get in, but I think 'She sells seashells by the seashore' is harder, even thought it's shorter.