To his dislike to houses in general, I believe was
added a particular objection to shutting himself up in the fort.
The majority of these houses were occupied by Theodore's wives and
concubines, the eunuchs, and female slaves. The granary and tej
houses were in the same inclosure, but separated from the ladies'
department by a strong fence; the granary consisted of half a dozen
huge huts, protected from the rain by a double roof. They contained
barley, tef, beans, peas, and a little wheat. All the grain was
kept in leather bags piled up until they reached almost to the roof.
It is said that, at the time of the capture of Magdala by our troops,
there was grain in sufficient quantity stored in these granaries
to last the garrison and other inhabitants of the amba for at least
six months. The dwellings of the chiefs and soldiers were built on
the model of the Amhara houses--circular, with a pointed thatched
roof. The huts of the common soldiers were built without order, in
some places in such close proximity that if, as it happened on one
or two occasions, a fire broke out, in a few seconds twenty or
thirty houses were at once burnt to the ground: nothing could
possibly stop the conflagration but rapidly pulling down to leeward
the huts not as yet on fire. The principal chiefs had several houses
for themselves, all in one inclosure, surrounded and separated from
the soldiers' huts by a high and strong fence.
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