The saint replied: “The way I choose
Is that which pious hermits use.”
For many a league they journeyed on
Till, when the sun of mid-day shone,
The hermit-haunted flood was seen
Of Jáhnaví,[177] the Rivers' Queen.
Soon as the holy stream they viewed,
Thronged with a white-winged multitude
Of sárases[178] and swans,[179] delight
Possessed them at the lovely sight;