Poncet refers to the oasis as ‘Helaoue,’ but although his caravan rested there four days, before proceeding to Dongola, via Shebb and Selîma, he makes no reference to the antiquities; in fact, his remarks on this region are extremely meagre. To quote his own words: “We Arriv’d on the 6th of October at Helaoue; ’Tis a pretty large Borough, and the last that is under the Grand Signior’ Jurisdiction. There is a Garrison in it of 500 Janisaries and 300 Spahi’s under the Command of an Officer whom in that Country they call Kachif. Helaoue is very pleasant, and answers fully its Name, which signifies a Country of Sweetness. Here are to be seen a great Number of Gardens water’d with Brooks, and a World of Palm-trees, which preserve a continual Verdure, Coloquintida is to be found there, and all the Fields are fill’d with Senna, which grows upon a Shrub, about three Foot High. This Drug which is so esteem’d in Europe, is of no use in the Country hereabouts. The Inhabitants of Helaoue in their Illnesses, make only Use of the Root of Ezula, which for a whole Night they infuse in Milk, and take the day after, having first Strain’d it thro’ a Sieve. This Medicine is very Violent, but ’tis what they like and commend very much. The Ezula is a thick Tree, the Blossom of which is blue; it grows into a sort of Ball, of an Oval Figure, full of Cotton, of which the People of that Country make pretty fine Cloth.” Referring to the deserts which surround the oases, Poncet remarks: “Those vast Wildernesses, where there is neither to be found Bird, nor wild Beast, nor Herbs, no nor so much as a little Fly, and where nothing is to be seen but Mountains of Sand, and the Carcasses, and Bones of Camels, Imprint a certain horrour in the Mind, which makes this Voyage very tedious and disagreeable. It wou’d be a hard matter, to Cross those frightful Desarts without the Assistance of Camels. These Animals will continue six or seven Days, without either eating or drinking, which I cou’d never have believ’d, if I had not observ’d it very particularly.” Poncet further relates that he was assured by a venerable old gentleman of his caravan that camels had been known to cover a desert journey of forty days and nights without either food or water. Although it is to be feared that the ‘ship of the desert’ at the present day is scarcely so abstemious as formerly, we must admit that Poncet’s description of the sterility of the Libyan Desert is little, if at all, exaggerated. One may, indeed, travel for hours without seeing bird, beast, or herb; and even ‘the little fly,’ which seldom fails to make known its presence for some time after leaving the inhabited districts, generally forsakes one before the caravan has proceeded far into the depths of the desert.