ALEXANDRINE TINNÉ, AFRICAN EXPLORER. THE sedentary part of mankind, which is the vast majority in civilized countries, will ever be especially attracted towards the records of adventurous travel undertaken by women. Sitting by your fireside, and reading of Lady Hester Stanhope's Bedouin wanderings in the Syrian Desert; of Lady Duff Gordon's daily life among the Fellaheen of the Nile; or of the gallant Lady Baker's participation in her husband's African perils, our minds are powerfully and agreeably affected by the sense of contrast such experiences present to those of ordinary existence. It is without doubt chiefly an impatience of conventional society, a domestic routine, narrowed by custom and fashion, that leads women of such courageous type far out of the beaten track. Sedentariness is not a normal condition of things, and most young people possessed of high spirits and good health would choose an out-of-door, breezy, adventurous life, if choice were possible. This feeling, up to a certain point, is a natural and healthy one. On the threshold of life, all is so new, so marvellous, so enticing! We would fain know what the great world is like, take part in its ever-changing, many-phased development, do as others have done before us, and discover or create for ourselves. Added to the inherent adventuresomeness of youth, we must take into account the romance attaching to Eastern travel. There is a magnetic fascination for some minds in Oriental life, that strange mixture of Biblical simplicity and primitiveness, with |