Next, Utnapishtim tells him that, even if he cannot obtain immortality, he can restore his youth using a plant with the power of rejuvenation. Gilgamesh takes the plant, but leaves it on the shore while swimming and a snake steals it, explaining why snakes are able to shed their skins. Despondent at this loss, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, and shows his city to the ferryman Urshanabi. It is at that this point the epic stops being a coherent narrative. Tablet XII is an appendix corresponding to the Sumerian poem of "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld" describing the loss of the "pikku" and "mikku".