"'And the god [Ea], the immutable lord, repeated this command in a
dream.--I listened to the decree of fate that he announced, and he said
to me:--" Man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu--thou, build a vessel and
finish it [quickly].--[By a deluge] I will destroy substance and
life.--Cause thou to go up into the vessel the substance of all that has
life.--The vessel thou shall build-600 cubits shall be the measure of
its length--and 60 cubits the amount of its breadth and of its height.
[Launch it] thus on the ocean, and cover it with a roof."--I understood,
and I said to Ea, my lord:--"[The vessel] that thou commandest me to
build thus--[when] I shall do it,--young and old [shall laugh at
me.]"--[Ea opened his mouth and] spoke.--He said to me, his
servant:--"[If they laugh at thee] thou shalt say to them:--[shall be
punished] he who has insulted me, [for the protection of the gods] is
over me.-- . . . like to caverns . . . -- . . . I will exercise my
judgment on that which is on high and that which is below . . . .--. . .
Close the vessel . . . -- . . . At a given moment that I shall cause
thee to know,--enter into it, and draw the door of the ship toward
thee.--Within it, thy grains, thy furniture, thy provisions, thy riches,
thy men-servants, and thy maid-servants, and thy young people--the
cattle of the field, and the wild beasts of the plain that I will
assemble-and that I will send thee, shall be kept behind thy
door."--Khasisatra opened his mouth and spoke;--he said to Ea, his
lord:--"No one has made [such a] ship.--On the prow I will fix . . . --I
shall see . . . and the vessel . . . --the vessel thou commandest me to
build [thus] which in . . ."

"'On the fifth day [the two sides of the bark] were raised.--In its
covering fourteen in all were its rafters--fourteen in all did it count
above.--I placed its roof, and I covered it.--I embarked in it on the
sixth day; I divided its floors on the seventh;--I divided the interior