Lunar eclipses figured prominently in the prognostications of the Babylonian seer. This text was part of the temple ritual. Specific roles and chants are assigned to different types of priests and laypeople. Aromatic woods are to be burned on an altar throughout an eclipse; dirges are to be sung; people are to remove their headgear and cover their heads with their garments, then wail and cry aloud, begging the gods to save them, their cities, and their shrines. The text conceives of an eclipse as the "death" of the moon, of nature, and of man, and conjures their revivication.