Odd answers

Ages ago I was rehearsing a song with a childrens choir, where the lyrics included a list of fish -- with a mild punchline about the pirhana.  As things go, a couple of the boys got a little bit obsessed over a few weeks with the omnivorous habits of this little breed of fish, and took to speculating how long one would survive upon landing in the midst of a school of them (they learnt the collective noun with a slight air of shock -- "you mean fish really go to school???")

The term went on, and the concert passed, and a new round of material arrived.  Among other things, this new program included a song referring to a maharaja.  I mentioned that a maharaja is like something between a very grand prince and a king, and that they tended to keep a very large establishment.  The choristers understood the idea of a king being accompanied by a queen, and a prince by a princess, a duke by a duchess.  Moving the title field out a little, we discovered that a Sultan's wife was a Sultana, and in India, men of middle-class and higher status were called Sahib and their wives Memsahib.  They were a little confounded by an earl's consort being a countess, but that particular gag had more-or-less run its course by then.

But with children there's always another punchline waiting in the wings, ready to leave you speechless.

One of the fish-obsessed boys raised his hand and asked what a maharaja's consort was called.  A bit flummoxed, I threw the question open to anyone who wished to answer it.

Up shot a flurry of hands, with answers ranging from princess and countess to "Mrs Maharaja," and a couple of other slightly odd-but-credible-sounding possibilities.

Then the another boy's hand went up.

"Isn't a maharaja's wife a pirhana?" he said...