mahafa

plural mahafas

1. alternativeAlternative form of mihaffa.

   We all rode camels except C. (Mrs. Marsh) who travelled in the mahafa... [Her camel], though a very large and strong animal, (7 ft. 3 inches high) was heavily burthened with the mahafa, and its contents, and the width of this mahafa was a great obstacle in the very narrow passages.

   1909, Elizabeth Green Marsh, Caroline Crane Marsh: A Sketch, pages 34-35

   1 more example

   Invalids, and luxurious persons, require more artificial arrangements for travelling on the camel... There is an another much less objectionable form of this apparatus, which is not unfrequently used by ladies of rank or persons 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 corners, 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.

   1856, George P. Marsh, The Camel: His Organization Habits and Uses Considered with Reference to His Introduction into the United States, pages 115-116