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138 When the two arrived at the green mountain, the comrades were awestruck. "Their words were silenced ... they stood still and gazed at the forest. They looked at the height of the cedars; they looked at the entrance to the forest: where Hu- wawa was wont to move was a path: straight were the tracks, a fiery channel. They beheld the Cedar Mountain, abode of the gods, the crossroads of Ishtar." They had indeed arrived at their destination, and the sight was awesome. Gilgamesh made an offering to Shamash and asked for an omen. Facing the mountain, he called out: "Bring me a dream, a favorable dream!" For the first time we learn here that a ritual had been practiced for bringing about such requested omen-dreams. The six verses describing the rite are partly damaged, but the undamaged portions give an idea of what had taken place: Enkidu arranged it for him, for Gilgamesh. With dust... tetseteeeees he fixed... beeteeeeeeeeee Gilgamesh sat with his chin on his knees. The ritual, it appears, called for the making of a circle with dust, the use of wild barley and blood in some magical way, and the sitting of the subject inside the circle with knees pulled up and the chin touching the knees. The rite worked, for next we read that "sleep, which spills out over people, overcame Gilgamesh; in the middle of the watch sleep de- parted from him; a dream he tells to Enkidu." In the dream, "which was extremely upsetting," Gilgamesh saw the two of them at the foot of the high mountain; suddenly the mountain toppled, and the two of them "were like flies" (meaning unclear). Reassuring Gilgamesh that the dream was favorable and that its meaning will become clear at dawn, Enkidu urged Gilgamesh to go back to sleep. This time Gilgamesh awoke with a start. "Did you arouse me?" he asked Enkidu, "Did you touch me, did you call my name?" No, said Enkidu. Then perhaps it was a god who had passed by, Gilgamesh said, for in his second dream he DIVINE ENCOUNTERS He made him lie down inside the circle and