THE ARRIVAL AT THE GATE OF THE FOREST. (Of Column I about ll. 1-36 are mutilated or missing, there being actually the beginnings of only sixteen lines. When the text becomes connected the heroes have reached the Gate of the Forest). Column I. ; (Enkidu addresses the Gate).
361!Enkidu lifted "his eyes’. . . and spake with the Gate as "°t were human(?): “O thou Gate of the Forest without understanding(?) . . . Sentience which thou hast not, . . . . I for (full) forty leagues have admired thy "wonderful timber, (Aye), till I sighted the towering Cedar... . (O but) thy wood hath no peer (in the country) . . . Six gay thy height, and two gw thy breadth . . . (Sooth, but) thy stanchion (?), thy socket (?),! thy pivot(?), thy lock (2), and thy shutter (?) , "(All of them) must have been fashion’d for thee’ in the City of Nippuri I O, if I had but known, O Gate, that this was "thy grandeur’, This, too, the grace "of thy structure’, then either an axe had I lifted Or I had . . . or bound together. . . . ” (Of the next Column remains a fragment, and that only presumed to belong to one of the above fragments from its appearance, which speaks of terror, a dream, and sorrow: “let me pray the gods . „may thy? god be . . . the father of the gods.” Agatn, of the third Column there is only a small portion left of the right half (this fragment, too, being also presumed to belong to the same tablet as that above-mentioned), speaking of Gilgamish, the Forest, and Enkidu. The fourth Column is entirely lost. Of Column V the latter part survives, in this case without any uncertainty. After a few broken lines tt runs as follows, the first speaker being probably Enkidu, and the scene the Gate of the Forest): ". . . FO, haste’ thee, withstand him, he will not "pursue(?) thee’, "We will go on down into the wood not ‘daunted, together (*)". . . . Thou shall put on seven garments... . . putting on, and six...(?)...” He like a mighty wild bull... Flung he the Portal afar, and "his? mouth was fill’d (with his challenge), Cried to the Guard of the Forest: “Up (2?) . . .! r"Tis I will challenge’ Humbaba like toa... ” (A small gap.) Column VI. (Enkidu is speaking) “Trouble (?) "I foresee (?) wherever I go . . . . O my friend, I have "seen?2 a dream which un- . . . . ” The day of the dream he had seen fulfilled . . . .3 (Enkidu ts stricken with fear at thought of the combat). Enkidu lay for a day, "yea, a second'—for Enkidu "lying? (Prone) on his couch, was a third and a fourth day . . ., afifth, sixth and seventh, Eighth, ninth, "and tenth’. While Enkidu "lay in his’ sickness . . ., th’ eleventh, (Aye, till) the twelfth . . . on ‘his’ couch was Enkidu "lying". Call'd he to Gilgamish,......... “(O but), my comrade, . . . hateth me . . because within Erech I was afraid of the combat, and . . . My friend, who in battle... ” (A small gap in which Gilgamish has answered. Enkidu replies): "Enkidu open 'd' his ‘mouth’ and spake ‘unto Gilgamish, saying’: (“Nay, but), "my friend, let us no wise’ go down ‘to the depths of the Forest", (For) ‘tis my hands "have grown weak’, and "my arms? are stricken with palsy. ” Gilgamish open’d his mouth and spake "unto Enkidu", saying: “Shall we, O friend, "play? the coward? ...... : . thou shalt surpass them all(?) . "Thou, © my friend, art cunning in warfare, art rshrewd( ?)" in the batiie, (So) shalt thou touch the . . . and of "death? have no terror, (Two dificult and mutilated lines). r$o that? the palsy (now striking) thine arms "may" depart, and the weakness Pass ‘from thy hands?! ‘Be brave (?) and resist! O my comrade, together We will go down—let the combat "in no wise diminish (?) thy courage ! O forget death, and be fearful(?) of nothing(?) . . (for he who is) "valiant (?), Cautious (and) careful, by leading "the way’ hath his own body guarded, (He ‘tis) will safeguard a comrade.” | A name by their ‘valour (?) . . They will establish. (And now) they together arrive at the barrier(?), Still 'd into silence (?) their speech, and they themselves (suddenly) stopping.