poncet's journey. 
67 
with rivulets, and the perpetual verdure of palm- 
trees, formed the most agreeable contrast with the 
country they had left. All the fields were over- 
spread with senna ; but that shrub, so highly 
prized in Europe, is never used in this countryo 
They now entered on another desert, much more 
extensive and complete than the one they had 
Urst traversed. Here they could not discover a 
single spring or rivulet ; neither birds, beasts, 
grass, nor even the smallest insect ; nothing but 
mountains, dead bodies and bones of camels, ob- 
jects which struck our traveller with inexpressible 
horror. After passing Chabba, (Sheb), a region 
abounding in alum, they came to Selyme, where 
they found excellent water, and supplied them- 
selves wqth a stock of that necessary for five days* 
They did not, however, see a human habitation 
till they arrived at Machoo, (Moscho), a large 
town on the eastern shore of the Nile, where that 
river forms several fertile islands. Their route 
now lay along its shores, through a fertile and 
agreeable valley, which did not, however, extend 
above a league in breadth, and bordered imme- 
diately on the most frightful deserts. Even this 
limited fertility is not the gift of nature, for, as 
the banks are high, no inundation takes place ; 
but the water is raised by machines drawn by 
oxen into vast reservoirs, whence it is distributed 
over the district* 
