116 THE CAMEL. 



These frames are suspended uprightly across the 

 pack-saddle, the travellers squat uncomfortably 

 within them, and an awning supported partly by 

 the high backs is thrown over them. You will 

 sometimes meet a whole harem, (not indeed so 

 large as Sultan Solomon's,) stowed away in a 

 moosultah ; and I once saw a mother and three 

 pickaninnies of ' assorted sizes ' riding in one of 

 these contrivances. There is another much less 

 objectionable form of this apparatus, which is 

 not unfrequently used by ladies of rank or per- 

 sons in ill health. It was called a mahafa by our 

 dragoman and Arabs, though Lane ignores both 

 the name and the thing, which is remarkable, 

 considering that it is not uncommon in Egypt. 

 The mahafa consists of a pair of boxes, or rather 

 frames, some five feet long, two or more wide, 

 and about two deep, with posts at the outer cor- 

 ners, and a wooden bottom. These frames, like 

 those of the moosultah, are hung across the pack- 

 saddle, and a large and usually showy awning is 

 supported over all by the posts at the corners and 

 another resting on the pack-saddle in the centre, 

 besides which it has side curtains, or when used 

 by Mussulman women, perhaps lattices. In or- 

 der to balance the mahafa, it must carry two per- 

 sons, or, if there be but one, an equivalent weight 

 as a counterpoise on the other side. The weight 

 of the mahafa is considerable, and with the nee- 



