MAGAZINE

magazine, primarily a warehouse for goods or merchandise (arab. _makhzan_, a storehouse, from _khazana_, to store up). in morocco _makhzan_ (or _maghzen_) has come to be used as the name of the government. the spaniards adopted the arabic in the form _magacen_, and the english form comes through the older french _magazin_, modern _magasin_. the meaning of a storehouse or large shop, common in french, is rare in english except in the military use of the term for a building for the storage of explosives and ammunition. it is applied to the chamber of a repeating rifle or machine-gun containing the supply of cartridges. the name as applied to a periodical publication containing articles on various subjects was first used in the _gentleman's magazine_ (1731), described as "a monthly collection, to treasure up as in a magazine" articles on the subjects with which it was proposed to deal. magdala (more correctly makdala), a natural stronghold in the country of the wollo gallas, abyssinia, about 250 m. w. of jibuti on the gulf of aden, in 11° 22 n., 39° 25 e. the basaltic plateau of which it consists rises 9110 ft. above the sea. it is about three-quarters of a mile in length by less than half a mile in breadth, and lies more than a thousand feet higher than the neighbouring plain of arogie. chosen about 1860 by the emperor theodore of abyssinia as his principal stronghold in the south, magdala owes its celebrity to the fact that, as the place of imprisonment of the english captives, it became the goal of the great english expedition of 1868. at the time of its capture it contained huts for a population of about three thousand. the whole rock was burned bare by order of the commander of the british force, sir robert napier, who, on being raised to the peerage for his services on this occasion, took the title of lord napier of magdala. the plateau was subsequently refortified by the abyssinians. see clements markham, _history of the abyssinian expedition_ (1869); and h. rassam, _british mission to theodore_ (1869).