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116 nah, was deprived of children because "the Lord had shut her womb." She gave birth to Samuel only after she vowed to give the boy, if she bears a son, “unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall come no razor upon his head." In the case of Etana's wife the problem was not an inability to conceive, but rather repeated miscarriages. She was_af- flicted with a LA.BU disease which prevented her bringing to full term the children that she did conceive. In his despera- tion, Etana envisioned dire forebodings. In a dream "he saw the city of Kish sobbing; in the city, the people were mourn- ing; there was a song of lamentation." Was it for him, be- cause "Etana cannot have an heir," or for his wife—an omen of death? Thereafter, "his wife said to Etana: the god showed me a dream. Like Etana my husband, I have had a dream." In the dream she saw a man. He held a plant in his hand; it was a shammu sha aladi, a Plant of Birth. He kept pouring cold water on it so that it might "become established in his house." He brought the plant to his city and into his house. From the plant there blossomed a flower; then the plant with- ered away. Etana was certain that the dream was a divine omen. "Who would not reverence such a dream!" he said. "The command of the gods has gone forth!" he exclaimed; the remedy to the malady "has come upon us." Where was this plant, Etana asked his wife. But, she said, in her dream "I could not see where it was growing." Con- vinced however that the dream was an omen that must come true, Etana went in search of it. He crossed rivers and moun- tain streams, he rode to and fro. But he could not find the plant. Frustrated, Etana sought divine guidance. "Every day Etana prayed repeatedly to Shamash." Coupling appeals with remonstration, "O Shamash, you have enjoyed the best cuts of my sheep," he said. "The soil has absorbed the blood of my lambs. I have honored the gods!" "The interpreters of dreams," he continued, "have made full use of my incense." Now it was up to the deities themselves, those "who have made full use of my slaughtered lambs," to interpret the dream for him. If there is such a Plant of Birth, he said in his prayers, DIVINE ENCOUNTERS