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I came across this puzzle that involves a treasure hunt in a poem. The puzzle is as follows:

A legend of nine,
In the Andaman,
A treasure you may find,
But, certainly, the blood of men.

Staring at the Sun,
At 30 to 6,
Al asked the captain,
“What is the fix?”
“The Sun” says the cap,
“And blood shall determine our fate”
And so he screams “Die, Al”
And so remain 8.

Down the direction, so gracefully learnt, Atop a lonely tree, they find a nest.
They hear the ill omens of the crows, And another life goes to waste.

Expectedly,
Another turn of events,
Left the first mate forever lost,
Along with the tents.

At 45 to 4, onward they went,
Towards the oasis in sight.
The most eager of all shattered their illusion,
And died due to the snake bite.

Soon, fell upon them, the night,
The predators were approaching fast,
And with backs turned to the Polaris,
They headed towards the past.

As the Sun lifted into the sky,
So did the spirits of the grey.
They were ready again to face the odds as before,
But with only mirrors leading the way.

“R.I.P. comrade,” said the captain,
And engulfed himself in loneliness,
Only to find that he was back,
At that inn with his mistress;

“The inn is the centre of everything,”
He admitted, amazed,
And it is there where I should have realized,
The curse of the maze.”

The above poem is famous in the islands of Andaman and Nicobar. The treasure is rumoured to be still there. Find the place where the treasure is buried.

Hints:

Use "breadcrumbs"
The Sun and time are great direction specifying tools
Read it aloud
The inn has many names.

More Hints:

(Para 1) At every turn there is a death
(Para 2) It points towards the north
(Para 3) The key is in the missing rhyme
(Para 7) Everything they did yesterday, with one minor change about the needle of the compass.

Even more Hints:

(Para 1) Every vertex is signified by a death.
(Para 2) The sundial can be used to signify an angle, given the latitude and the time of a place.
(Para 3) The direction is in the missing rhyme.
(Para 5) The Sun still guides the way.
(Para 6) Go back to the point where you started from.
(Para 7) Everything they did yesterday but with lateral inversion about the needle of a compass.
(Para 9) Properties of an equilateral triangle.

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    $\begingroup$ Towards the beginning, the captain says "The sun... Die, Al" which sounds like "sundial" - that may be important. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 14:30
  • $\begingroup$ @Deusovi Nice observation, I found another hint that "inn has many names". I don't understand what to make of it. $\endgroup$
    – t-rex
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 15:48
  • $\begingroup$ is the answer a location on the Andaman Islands? because i can't find a decent map $\endgroup$
    – JMP
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 7:29
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    $\begingroup$ To elaborate, if they start at the north pole then no matter where the sun is, they're heading south (crimson saint), which is confirmed by 30 to 6 (two hands of the clock pointing south). Next directive seems to be 45 to 4 which would be east. Then backs to Polaris, means they're facing south, but they head towards their past (i.e. backwards), which would be north. Then he ends up back at the inn. Of course there's a lot more that doesn't appear to give directions, which I'm conveniently ignoring, but presumably means something... $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 12:41
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    $\begingroup$ @Alconja I think this one does actually have a separate location, the lateral inversion with the mirror would take them to a different place on the second trip... The first time around from the directions I found they do end up back where they started. $\endgroup$
    – Z. Dailey
    Commented Mar 15, 2016 at 16:20

1 Answer 1

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Going to take a stab at it, but I'm not 100% by any means.

- Second stanza infers getting direction from a sundial.
- Starting the day at Andaman, at 30 to 6, a sundial would be pointing ~262.5 degrees or fairly close to WbS.
- Looking at this as a local search for treasure there would be no way to find it as there is no starting point in Andaman to work with, so we must look at the large scale map.
- On that bearing we would end up on the northern point of Sri Lanka.
- Stanza 3 leaves us with a missing rhyme, and what rhymes with nest? guess we're headed west.
- This takes us to the southern tip of India.
- Stanza 4 lets us know were changing course again, and in stanza 5 we see that we need to travel on a bearing of 45 to 4.
- Using our handy sundial again we end up going just off NE at ~48.75 degrees.
- This leads us to land around Sittwe.
- Stanza 6 lets us know were going South, with our backs to Polaris, this will obviously lead us right back to Andaman.

This is where things start to change...

- Now were going to be using mirrors to guide the way, using a lateral inversion of the day before's trip, we find ourselves heading just off of a bearing of EbS.
- Using this, we come to shore on Letsok-aw, Burma.
- Following our trip opposite of the day before, now we must head east.
- This takes us to the northern end of Kanmaw.
- Now for our trip, slightly off of bearing NW, we und up at Sabi.

Finale?

- For our last part of the trip we must head south, and the island due south of Sabi is Money Island, Burma. Money == Treasure

I believe the original question asked something about how many people died or something.

Its been stated that one die at every turn, so there should only be the 1 left at the end. (but at least he got the treasure and the mistress.)

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 Very nice. Could you add images/maps to your answer as well? $\endgroup$
    – BmyGuest
    Commented Mar 17, 2016 at 11:59
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    $\begingroup$ @BmyGuest I will if confirmed right. If not I'll be working on an alternative. $\endgroup$
    – Z. Dailey
    Commented Mar 17, 2016 at 16:30
  • $\begingroup$ @Z.Dailey, I don't think that you are right. You are using the sundial wrongly. I don't have the answer but it has something to do with the incenter of an equilateral triangle. $\endgroup$
    – t-rex
    Commented Mar 17, 2016 at 18:23
  • $\begingroup$ Well if you look at the outer points of your travels, Andaman is in the middle of that triangle. $\endgroup$
    – Z. Dailey
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 3:41

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