The Mulefa are a fictional race of sapient beings who inhabit a parallel Earth in the novel The Amber Spyglass. "Mulefa" is a plural word, the singular being "zalif". "Zalif" is pronounced subtly differently for a male or a female.
The Mulefa evolved in a radically different fashion from humans. These elephant-like creatures possess an anatomy based on a diamond-framed skeleton lacking a spine, have four legs, short horns, and a prehensile trunk that functionally takes the place of hands. Signing with the trunk is an integral part of Mulefa language. They form close-knit communities, closer than most human groups met in the novel. One of the reasons for the closeness of their communities is that, lacking two hands, it usually requires two or more Mulefa trunks working together to accomplish complex tasks like tying knots.
A notable feature of the Mulefa is their use of large, disc-shaped seed pods from their world's enormous "seed-pod trees" in locomotion; the pods fit neatly onto a spur on their front and rear legs when each zalif is grown enough to use it. They propel themselves using their two side legs, like a cyclist without pedals. Ancient lava flows solidified into smooth rivers of rock running across the land serve as roads to ease transport. The Mulefa have a symbiotic relationship with the seedpod trees – their use of the pods on the "roads" allows the extremely hard exterior to crack and the seeds to emerge. These are germinated by the Mulefa, allowing the wheel-pod trees to survive. As the book notes, it is the three combined elements of seed-pod, spur, and rock formation which leads to the current Mulefa existence.
From a technological point of view, the Mulefa's civilization is reminiscent of humanity in the stone age. Mulefa live in wattle-and-daub villages and use simple tools – there is no evidence of any form of mechanisation in their world. They do not use metal for any purpose other than ornaments. Reference is made to their domestication of the grazer herds, their non-intrusive use of trees to make lacquer, and their distilling of acid from rocks. One of their few natural enemies are huge white birds called tualapi which habitually destroy settlements with chilling ferocity, and which the Mulefa have no real defense against (save retreating further inland). The Mulefa also appear to lack any sort of organized government; they appear to live in village groups with little or no contact between settlements. The Mulefa's less advanced technology may be due to their limited trunks – the duality and dexterity of hands, and independence of hands from most human speech gives humans an advantage; their state of symbiosis with their natural environment (to the extent that it supplies them with everything they need) may also preclude much need for further development.
The Mulefa view the world differently than humans, and by their own admission to Mary Malone they have much slower thought processes and do not easily visualize abstract concepts such as mathematics, or establish links and patterns. They do have an extraordinary race memory, remembering all of their history starting 33,000 years ago. That is when they first interacted with the wheel-pod trees, symbolized in a story that is their equivalent to the Adam and Eve story of humans, although Mulefa see the enlightening event in a very positive light. The period of 33,000 years coincides with the time frame given in the books for the awakening of human consciousness in other worlds, as evidenced by Mary Malone's anthropological research regarding Dust. Mulefa are also able to see Dust directly without the aid of an instrument such as the amber spyglass. The oil from their pods allow them to "grow up", making them more self-aware and able to see Dust.
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