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151 proach, they questioned Gilgamesh; and he told them who he was and that he was indeed two-thirds divine. "On account of Utnapishtim, my forefather, have I come," he told the guards, "he who the congregation of the gods has joined; about Death and Life I wish to ask him." "No mortal has passed through the mountain's inaccessible tract!" the guards told Gilgamesh. However, recognizing that he was not a mere mortal, they let him through. "The gate of the Mount is open to thee!" they announced. The "inaccessible tract" was a subterranean "path of Sha- mash." The passage through it lasted twelve double-hours. "The darkness was dense, there was no light." Gilgamesh could not see “ahead or behind." In the eighth double-hour something made him scream with fear. In the ninth double- hour "he felt a north wind fanning his face"—he was nearing an opening to the sky. In the eleventh double-hour he could see dawn breaking. Finally, in the twelfth double-hour, "it had grown bright; he came out in front of the sun." Out of the subterranean passage through the sacred moun- tain, in sunlight, Gilgamesh came upon an incredible sight. He saw "an enclosure of the gods" wherein there was a garden; but the "garden" was made up entirely of artificially carved precious stones: "All kinds of thorny Prickly Bushes Figure 46 In Search of Immortality