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91 was no communication by means of a dream, at night. It was daytime; and yet, the encounter was totally different. The experience was traumatic. We read in the Assyrian recension that the baffled Atra-hasis "bowed down and pros- trated himself, then stood up, opened his mouth, and said," Enki, lord-god— I heard your entry, I noticed steps like your footsteps! For seven years, Atra-hasis said, "I have seen your face." Now, all of a sudden, he could not see his lord-god. Appeal- ing to the unseen god, "Atra-hasis made his voice heard and spoke to his lord," asking for the meaning, the portent of his dream, that he may know what to do. Thereupon Enki "opened his mouth to speak, and ad- dressed the reed wall." Still not seeing his god, Atra-hasis heard the deity's voice coming from behind the reed wall in the temple; his lord-god was giving instructions to the wall: Wall, listen to me! Reed wall, observe my words! Discard your house, build a boat! Spurn property, save life! from inside it, pitched all over with tar "above and below." Then Enki "opened the water clock and filled it; He an- nounced to him the coming of a killing flood on the seventh night.". A depiction on a Sumerian cylinder seal appears to have illustrated the scene, showing the reed wall (in the shape of a water clock?) held by a priest, Enki as a serpent-god, and the hero of the Deluge getting instructions (Fig. 22). The construction of the boat, obviously, could not have been hidden from the other people; so how could it be done without alerting them, too, to the coming catastrophe? For that, Atra-hasis was instructed (from behind the reed wall) to explain to the others that he was building the boat in order The Deluge Instructions for the construction of the boat then followed. It had to be roofed over so that the Sun should not be seen