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175 also the fate of the land and its people—prosperity and abun- dance or the lack of them in the coming year. For the first four days of the festival, the gods alone participated in the reenactments. On the fifth day the king came on the scene, leading the elders and other dignitaries in a procession through a special Way of Ishtar (in Babylon the processional way assumed monumental proportions and architectural grandeur that inspire awe to this day; it has been reconstructed in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin). Arriving at the main temple, the king was met by the High Priest, who took away the king's insignia and placed them before the deity in the Holy of Holies. Then, returning to the dethroned king, the High Priest struck him in the face and made him kneel down for a ceremony of Atonement in which the king had to recite a list of sins and seek divine forgive- ness. Priests then led the king out of town to a pit of symbolic death; the king stayed there imprisoned while above the gods debated his Destiny. On the ninth day he reemerged, was given back his insignia and royal robes, and led back the procession to the city. There, at evetime, washed and scented, he was led to the Gipar in the sacred precinct. At the entrance to the Gigunu he was met by Inanna's personal attendant, who made the following appeal to the goddess in behalf of the king: The sun has gone to sleep, the day has passed. As in bed you gaze upon him, as you caress him— give Life unto the king ... May the king whom you have called to heart enjoy long days at your holy lap . .. Give him a reign favorable and glorious, Grant his throne an enduring foundation .. . May the farmer make the fields productive, May the shepherd multiply the sheepfolds . . . In the palace let there be long life. The king was then left alone with the goddess in the Gi- gunu for the conjugal encounter. It lasted the whole night. In Encounters in the GIGUNU