Just one, you! That's an oldie, but a goodie.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16107495/

Just you?

You are the first one who listened to the directions and posted the answer and the ref, so you got it!!!!

One! The only person who was going was the person at th beginning of the riddle.

Just you! :D

What I always found interesting about that riddle is that it could be taken many ways.

Nothing says that you met the man and all his wives who are going the other way. For all you know, he may have joined the road from a fork or an intersection and be travelling with you.

It also does not say how many what. Assuming the previous, and if you mean people (assuming the man married within his species), the answer would be nine.

If you include the cats and kittens, it would be 1+1+7+7^3+7^4.

Also, the riddle, does not say that each cat was female. Many could be male, and claim seven of the kittens also claimed by another cat.

It also does not say that the kittens were with them, only that the cats "had" them.

So, it answer could become very complex.

Usually, however, since the riddlee is put on the spot, they can't be expected to go through all that and come up with a definite answer, UNLESS that answer is one, based on the assumption that the man and his wives were going the other way.

You could also interpret the lines "Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, / How many were there going to St. Ives?" as an instruction to ONLY count the kittens, cats, sacks, and wives--therefore one is NOT to count the man and the riddler, and one is to count the sacks. 7+7^2+7^3+7^4.

ah but of course the whole POINT is that you don't know where THEY were going, but you DO know, where YOU were.

So, the correct answer, the TRULY correct answer is, "I don't know. You didn't tell me where the other man was going."

well i suppose you could say that. i suppose i might too. though i think the intended question was how many do you KNOW were going to st ives. though of course asking that way would pretty much give it away.

So would saying:

"As I was going to St. Ives
"I met a man coming the other way with....

It was a beautiful day as I left my cottage and made the long trek to St. Ives in Cornwall. While still far from the town, I happened upon a man with seven women walking in step around him, wearing similar dress. Each woman in the group held a sack in their arms, and peering from the sack could be seen the ears and occasional noses of several cats and kittens of various colors, shapes, and breeds.

I felt disgusted. A selfish man with so many wives that he felt compelled to drown so many helpless, harmless felines in a riverbed, didn't need any of my attention - much less for me to write a riddle about them.

i won't answer that because i remember it from a very long time ago.
even i remember pogo the possum posing that one also.
and there was something about albert the alligator and a railroad.
well that was in the drawings, though of course it had nothing directly to do with the riddle.

ah well since since everyone else HAS already got it and posted the correct answer.
its really not a math problem at all, but a matter of how closely one observes what is actually said and asked, and what isn't.

oh and the way i remember it, it wasn't 7, but 40. which still of course makes absolutely no difference.

Aww man, I figured it out right away, but I was WAY too late. That's what I get for playing Smash Bros.. XD