548 BOOK XII. 
mud, although some may be made of stones or bricks. When of brick they 
are often sixteen feet high, and if the roof rises twenty-four feet high, then 
the walls which are at the ends must be made forty feet high, as likewise 
the interior partition walls. The roof consists of large shingles four feet long, 
one foot wide, and two digits thick; these are fixed on long narrow planks 
placed on the rafters, which are joined at the upper end and slope in opposite 
directions. The whole of the under side is plastered one digit thick with 
straw mixed with lute; likewise the roof on the outside is plastered one 
and a half feet thick with straw mixed with lute, in order that the shed 
should not run any risk of fire, and that it should be proof against rain, and 
be able to retain the heat necessary for drying the lumps of salt. Each shed 
is divided into three parts, in the first of which the firewood and straw are 
placed; in the middle room, separated from the first room by a partition, is 
the fireplace on which is placed the caldron. To the right of the caldron is 
a tub, into which is emptied the brine brought into the shed by the porters; 
to the left is a bench, on which there is room to lay thirty pieces of salt. 
In the third room, which is in the back part of the house, there is made a pile 
of clay or ashes eight feet higher than the floor, being the same height as the 
bench. The master and his assistants, when they carry away the lumps of 
salt from the caldrons, go from the former to the latter. They ascend from 
the right side of the caldron, not by steps, but by a slope of earth. At the 
top of the end wall are two small windows, and a third is in the roof, through 
which the smoke escapes. This smoke, emitted from both the back and the 
front of the furnace, finds outlet through a hood through which it makes 
its way up to the windows; this hood consists of boards projecting one 
beyond the other, which are supported by two small beams of the roof. 
Opposite the fireplace the middle partition has an open door eight feet high 
and four feet wide, through which there is a gentle draught which drives the 
smoke into the last room; the front wall also has a door of the same height 
and width. Both of these doors are large enough to permit the firewood or 
straw or the brine to be carried in, and the lumps of salt to be carried out; 
these doors must be closed when the wind blows, so that the boiling will 
not be hindered. Indeed, glass panes which exclude the wind but transmit the 
light, should be inserted in the windows in the walls. 
They construct the greater part of the fireplace of rock-salt and of clay 
mixed with salt and moistened with brine, for such walls are greatly 
hardened by the fire. These fireplaces are made eight and a half feet long, 
seven and three quarters feet wide, and, if wood is burned in them, nearly 
four feet high; but if straw is burned in them, they are six feet high. An 
iron rod, about four feet long, is engaged in a hole in an iron foot, which 
stands on the base of the middle of the furnace mouth. This mouth is three 
feet in Width, and has a door which opens inward; through it they throw 
in the straw. 
The caldrons are rectangular, eight feet long, seven feet wide, and half a 
foot high, and are made of sheets of iron or lead, three feet long and of the 
same width, all but two digits. These plates are not very thick, so that the 
