The only other materials now wanting for the construction of the temple
were the sun-dried bricks of clay, of which the temple platform and
the structure of the temple itself were in the main composed. Their
manufacture was now inaugurated by a symbolical ceremony carried out by
the patesi in person. At dawn he performed an ablution with the fitting
rites that accompanied it, and when the day was more advanced he slew
a bull and a kid as sacrifices, and he then entered the temple of
Ningirsu, where he prostrated himself. And he took the sacred mould
and the fair cushion on which it rested in the temple, and he poured a
libation into the mould. Afterwards, having made offerings of honey and
butter, and having burnt incense, he placed the cushion and the mould
upon his head and carried it to the appointed place. There he placed
clay in the mould, shaping it into a brick, and he left the brick in its
mould within the temple. And last of all he sprinkled oil of cedar-wood
around.
The next day at dawn Gudea broke the mould and set the brick in the sun.
And the Sun-god was rejoiced at the brick that he had fashioned. And
Gudea took the brick and raised it on high towards the heavens, and he
carried the brick to his people. In this way the patesi inaugurated the
manufacture of the sun-dried bricks for the temple, the sacred brick
which he had made being the symbol and pattern of the innumerable bricks
to be used in its construction.
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