[WiZ] Priestly Oath

[WiZ]

A priest is taking a leisurely stroll when he is dismayed to hear an exchange of swearing and blasphemy coming from around a corner. He turns the corner but sees nobody. After a few minutes, he finds the culprits, but says or does nothing to them. Why not?

Quickie. OAATP rules apply. Caveat earlispoilor. No WAGs will be entertained in the main thread.

[GalFisk]

Are the culprits H? A? M?

[LemonCurry]

Is the priest H? A? M?

[Sundowner]

Were the swearwords in a language the priest was capable of understanding?

[irishelk]

Is the exchange being played by some kind of device?

[Mimino]

Is there exactly one culprit? (as you say "the culprit")

[WiZ]

I could have sworn I'd answered these. Never mind.

GalFisk

Are the culprits H? no A? likely M? irrel

LemonCurry

Is the priest H? A? M? yes to all

Sundowner

Were the swearwords in a language the priest was capable of understanding? yes

IrishElk

Is the exchange being played by some kind of device? no

Mimino

Is there exactly one culprit? (as you say "the culprit") no

By my reading, the puzzle refers to 'culprits' - if it's showing up as singular at your end, please assume there is more than one.

[Sundowner64]

Were the culprits birds?
I could have sworn this question had been asked already.

[WiZ]

Were the culprits birds? yes

There were some guesses in the chatroom after I mused aloud that I'd contrived a puzzle too easy to post - I vaguely recall one of them mentioning a certain kind of bird.

[Traveller]

Were the culprits sparrows? Eagles? Storks? Red-robins? Penguins? Cormorants? Cranes ? Larks? Flamingos? Hummingbirds? Meat tits? Sunbirds ? Plovers ? Cuckoos ? Kori Bustards ? Dulls ? Owls ? Puffins ? Guineafowls ? Chickens ? Vultures ? Wagtails ? Crows ? Pigeons ? Magpies ? Falcons ? Kiwis ? Nightingales ? Ostriches ? Seagulls ? Grouses ?

[trebor2]

Parrots? Repeating what their owners/people around them had said?

I swear I was one of the people asking this question already.

[WiZ]

Traveller

Were the culprits sparrows? Eagles? Storks? Red-robins? Penguins? Cormorants? Cranes ? Larks? Flamingos? Hummingbirds? Meat tits? Sunbirds ? Plovers ? Cuckoos ? Kori Bustards ? Dulls ? Owls ? Puffins ? Guineafowls ? Chickens ? Vultures ? Wagtails ? Crows ? Pigeons ? Magpies ? Falcons ? Kiwis ? Nightingales ? Ostriches ? Seagulls ? Grouses?

None of the above!

Also, I don't believe 'meat tits' are a bird. Although they can be found on them...

Trebor

Parrots? yes Repeating what their owners/people around them had said? yes

It's looking more and more like half of this puzzle was a casualty of the rebirth. No matter. It was always destined to be a quickie. And how often do we get to solve a puzzle twice?

***** SPOILER *****

The 'culprits' were captive parrots that had escaped to the local park. They continued to indulge in their fruity language in this more public setting.

Well done Trebor (and perhaps someone else, long ago) on the solution - and thank you everyone for playing!

[Traveller]

Also, I don't believe 'meat tits' are a bird. Although they can be found on them...

OK, shame on me for trusting google translate too far. The Norwegian name for the bird is "Kjøttmeis", where "kjøtt" means "meat" and "meis" is a family of small birds.

Also, that posting was of course completeley tongue-in-cheek, listing all the birds I could think of except parrots.

[Traveller]

I now looked it up in a proper (I hope) dictionary, which gives the translation as "titmouse"