Answers to Riddle on St. Ives

As I was going to St. Ives,

I met a man with seven wives,

Each wife had seven sacks,

Each sack had seven cats,

Each cat had seven kits:

Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,

How many were there going to St. Ives?

1. The answer is 1.In case the assumption is that the Narrator is the only one going to St. Ives and just met those people coming from St. Ives that is in opposite direction.

2. However If one disregards the 'trick' answer, the most common mathematical answer is 2802. That is 1 man, 7 wives, 49 sacks, 343 cats, and 2401 kits, plus the narrator (the sum of a geometric series, plus one). If the narrator overtook the group as they were also travelling to St. Ives, the answer is all are going to St. Ives. The word 'met' may be ambiguous: in modern usage, 'to meet someone on the road' may include the sense of 'passed' or 'overtook'; while the older usage may have referred exclusively to those going in opposite directions.