Riddle-Me-Monday - The first chapter

We need a bit more insanity at work, so I have started sending out weekly riddles. Here are the first lot...

Hello People,
Welcome to the first chapter of Riddle-Me-Monday. The perfect chance for a bit of insanity to prepare you for the rest of the week. If you do not wish to get my Riddle-Me-Monday email please let me know. This week's first riddle is pinched from a reasonably well known series of books. If you think there should be a prize for having a go let me know - I'm thinking in the sort of randomly select someone who replies, rather than first in. I have some rubbish that I need to get rid of - I mean some nice odds and ends that would be appreciated...

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RIDDLE ONE:

First think of the person who lives in disguise,
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.

Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend,
The middle of middle and end of the end?

And finally give me the sound often heard
During the search for a hard-to-find word.

Now string them together, and answer me this,
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?

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RIDDLE TWO (For those of you who are hungry)

A box without hinges, key or lid
Yet Golden treasure inside is hid
(what is it?)

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RIDDLE THREE

Pronounced as one letter,
And written with three,
Two letters there are,
And two only in me.
I'm double, I'm single,
I'm black, blue, and gray,
I'm read from both ends,
And the same either way.
What am I?

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Last Thursday and Friday some people were playing around with the traditional Riddle of the Sphinx.

Which creature in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?

In Greek mythology the Sphinx (whom this riddle belongs to) sat outside the city of Thebes and asked this riddle to all travelers who passed. If the traveler said the wrong anser the Sphinx would eat her/him. No one could work out the answer for years until Oedipus solved the riddle and when the riddle was solved the Sphinx destroyed herself.

The answer is traditionally man (or humans, to be politically correct). The morning represents infancy, in which we crawl on all fours. We walk normally in the afternoon, and have a custom of using a cane or staff in the "evening" when we are elderly.

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