Shining Cheeks, daughter of the King of Munster."

He touched the dog too, and it became a little silky lapdog that could
nestle in your palm. Then he changed the old mare into a brisk, piebald
palfrey. Then he changed himself so that he became the living image of
Ae, the son of the King of Connaught, who had just been married to Ivell
of the Shining Cheeks, and then he changed mac an Da'v into the likeness
of Ae's attendant, and then they all set off towards the fortress,
singing the song that begins: My wife is nicer than any one's wife, Any
one's wife, any one's wife, My wife is nicer than any one's wife, Which
nobody can deny.

CHAPTER XX

The doorkeeper brought word to the King of Leinster that the son of the
King of Connaught, Ae the Beautiful, and his wife, Ivell of the Shining
Cheeks, were at the door, that they had been banished from Connaught
by Ae's father, and they were seeking the protection of the King of
Leinster.

Branduv came to the door himself to welcome them, and the minute he
looked on Ivell of the Shining Cheeks it was plain that he liked looking
at her.

It was now drawing towards evening, and a feast was prepared for the
guests with a banquet to follow it. At the feast Duv Laca sat beside the
King of Leinster, but Mongan sat opposite him with Ivell, and Mongan put
more and more magic into the hag, so that her cheeks shone and her eyes
gleamed, and she was utterly bewitching to the eye; and when Branduv
looked at her she seemed to grow more and more lovely and more and more
desirable, and at last there was not a bone in his body as big as an
inch that was not filled with love and longing for the girl.

Every few minutes he gave a great sigh as if he had eaten too much, and
when Duv Laca asked him if he had eaten too much he said he had but
that he had not drunk enough, and by that he meant that he had not drunk
enough from the eyes of the girl before him.

At the banquet which was then held he looked at her again, and every
time he took a drink he toasted Ivell across the brim of his goblet, and
in a little while she began to toast him back across the rim of her
cup, for he was drinking ale, but she was drinking mead. Then he sent a
messenger to her to say that it was a far better thing to be the wife
of the King of Leinster than to be the wife of the son of the King of
Connaught, for a king is better than a prince, and Ivell thought that
this was as wise a thing as anybody had ever s