The result was sort of like a pueblo mud dwelling, but not nearly so orderly, with long crates spanning empty space or jutting out crazily, ladders leaning everywhere.
The fifth Modjadji greets visitors by hoisting herself from a stoop and preceding them into a thatched mud dwelling, called a rondavel.
Victorian-looking mechanical contraptions like a submarine on rails coexist with native mud dwellings connected by creaky wooden walkways.
The earthquake last Friday knocked down the big concrete houses of this rich village with the same murderous fury with which it demolished the mud dwellings of farm laborers in Dagara.
The mud dwellings, rising usually to a height of about eight feet, faced each other across dark lanes like gullies, and all but met overhead.
Occasionally, there were villages - huddles of mud dwellings, shaded by palm-trees.
Although the items and tools they used have been largely taken away by looters, some of their stone and mud dwellings are well-preserved.
Then, with the unexpected arrival of his sister and her still growing family, the simple mud dwelling became a domicile for 26.
At the bottom of the rock, level with Kady, was a deep cut, and inside the natural hollow were the remains of ancient mud dwellings.
She made her way along the narrow stone path between the acacia trees on this memorable nativity evening and downhill to the gate in the castle wall which led into the heart of the mud dwellings.