Michener

[Robert E. Spenger]

If my memory serves me correctly, Michener did not claim to have done
any research on the numbers, he was just quoted some one who gave him
the half million figure. I don't have a copy of Iberia on hand to check
on that. On the other hand, I also remember seeing a drawing from the
middle ages of a huge long line of pilgrims snaking across the square
waiting to get into the cathedral.  I was not only impressed by the
large number, but also the fact that it was a very orderly queue, not
the pushing mob scene that often occurs in current times - I don't mean
on the camino particularly, but in general.

Robert

Barry Evans wrote:

> jumping in again...
> Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
>
> Seems to me this claim for, in your words, "such amazing numbers,"
> fits that category. The idea that 1 in 80 or whatever it is of the
> population of western europe, every year, took off for months at a
> time when almost everyone was living hand to mouth, people worked
> dawn to dusk 7 days a week just to stay alive, they probably had no
> savings...really does seem extraordinary. Never mind the impact that
> they would have had on the population of some of the villages en
> route (just 70 or so peregrinos totally overwhelmed Hospital one
> evening last September!)...you're going to have to come up with
> something better than "Michener said it was so, so it must be true"
> I'm afraid, with all respect!
> I'd love to be proven wrong on this.
> Barry Evans
>
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> Barry Evans    (707) 476 8317
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> *describing* it objectively. (Joan Tollifson)
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