.

Arriving there, he found about him nothing but joy and glad faces, for
the renewal of amity and concord; and his people were welcomed, and
well entreated, and handsomely entertained for the night.

[Illustration: "There sat the three maidens with the Queen"]

And there sat the three maidens on the same couch with the Danaan
Queen, and Bov the Red bade Lir choose which one he would have to
wife.

"The maidens are all fair and noble," said Lir, "but the eldest is
first in consideration and honour, and it is she that I will take, if
she be willing."

"The eldest is Eva," said Bov the Red, "and she will wed thee if it be
pleasing to thee." "It is pleasing," said Lir, and the pair were
wedded the same night. Lir abode for fourteen days in the palace of
Bov the Red, and then departed with his bride, to make a great
wedding-feast among his own people.

In due time after this Eva, wife of Lir, bore him two fair children at
a birth, a daughter and a son. The daughter's name was called
Fionnuala of the Fair Shoulder, and the son's name was Hugh. And
again she bore him two sons, Fiachra and Conn; and at their birth she
died. At this Lir was sorely grieved and afflicted, and but for the
great love he bore to his four children he would gladly have died too.

When the folk at the palace of Bov the Red heard that, they also were
sorely grieved at the death of their foster-child, and they lamented
her with keening and with weeping. Bov the Red said, "We grieve for
this maiden on account of the good man we gave her to, and for his
friendship and fellowship; howbeit our friendship shall not be
sundered, for we shall give him to wife her sister, namely Aoife."

Word of this was brought to Lir, and he went once more to Lough Derg
to the palace of Bov the Red and there he took to wife Aoife, the fair
and wise, and brought her to his own home. And Aoife held the children
of Lir and of her sister in honour and affection; for indeed no one
could behold these four children without giving them the love of his
soul.

For love of them, too, came Bov the Red often to the house of Lir, and
he would take them to his own house at times and let them spend a
while there, and then to their own home again. All of the People of
Dana who came visiting and feasting to Lir had joy and delight in the
children, for their beauty and gentleness; and the love of their
father for them was exceeding great, so that he would rise very early
every mornin