(Pope), called by Platina John VIII., is said to have held the holy see between Leo IV. who died in 855, and Benedict III. who died in 858. Marianus Scotus says, he sat two years five months and four days. Numberless have been the controversies, fables, and conjectures, relating to this pope. It is said that a German girl, pretending to be a man, went to Athens, where she made great progress in the sciences; and afterward came to Rome in the same habit. As she had a quick genius, and spoke with a good grace in the public disputations and lectures, her great learning was admired, and every one loved her extremely; so that after the death of Leo, she was chosen pope, and performed all offices as such. Whilst she was in possession of this high dignity, she was got with child; and as she was going in a solemn procession to the Lateran church, she was delivered of that child, between the Coliseum and St Clement's church, in a most public street, before a crowd of people, and died on the spot, in 857. By way of embellishing this story, may be added the precaution reported to have been afterward taken to avoid such another accident. dent. After the election of a pope, he was placed on a chair with an open seat, called the *groping chair*, when a deacon came most devoutly behind and satisfied himself of the pontiff's sex by feeling. This precaution, however, has been long deemed unnecessary, because the cardinals now always get ballards enough to establish their virility before they arrive at the pontificate.

*Joan d'Arc*, or the Maid of Orleans, whose heroic behaviour in reanimating the expiring valour of the French nation, though by the most superstitious means, (pretending to be inspired), delivered a better fate. She was burnt by the English as a sorceress in 1429, aged 24. See *France*, no 101.

*Joanna*, one of the Comora islands in the Indian ocean, E. Long. 44.15. S. Lat. 12.30. The north side floats out into two points, 26 miles astern, between which there is a great bay. This island is a proper place of refreshment for the East India ships, whose crews, when ill of the scurvy, soon recover by the use of limes, lemons, and oranges, and from the air of the land. The town where the king resides is at the east side of the island; and though it is three quarters of a mile in length, it does not contain above 200 houses. Their principal houses are built with stone, with a quadrangle in the middle, and are only one story high. All the other houses, or rather huts, are slightly composed of plastered reeds; and yet the mosques are tolerable structures, very neat and clean in the inside. The horned cattle are a kind of buffaloes, having a large hump on their shoulders, which is very delicious eating; but there is not one horse, mule, nor ass, in all the island.—The original natives, in number about 7000, occupy the hills, and are generally at war with the Arabian interlopers, who established themselves on the sea-coast by conquest, and are about 3000 in number. These latter are described by an anonymous letter-writer as poor miserable beings, who not being able to carry on any extensive degree of cultivation, on account of their being exposed to the depredations of the mountaineer natives, subsist chiefly by supplying the India ships who touch there for refreshment with a few cattle and tropical fruits. According to the same writer, the descriptions of this island and its inhabitants by the Abbé Baynal and Major Rooke, are not only exaggerated but erroneous; neither the country being so picturesque in beautiful landscapes as the former describes it, nor the inhabitants meriting the respectable character given of them by the latter. As we are not, however, competent to decide in this matter, we shall subjoin the entertaining account given by the Major.

"Though Joanna is not the largest, yet it may be reckoned the principal of the Comora Islands; it claims sovereignty over, and exacts tribute from, all the others: these pretensions it is however sometimes obliged to assert by the sword, and at present meditates an expedition against Mayotta, which is in a state of rebellion. The natives on being asked the cause of their war with that people, reply, 'Mayotta like America.' They get their supplies of arms and ammunition from ships that touch here; and the arrival of so large a fleet as the present will prove very favourable to them, as it is customary for all to make presents of arms and powder to the prince when he pays a visit on board, which he does to every one. A salute is the compliment due on that occasion; but as our guns are hotted, an apology is made for the omission of that ceremony, and the prince readily admits of it, provided he receives a number of cartridges equal to the guns that would have been fired.

"The king lives at a town about 12 miles off on the east side of the island: two princes of the blood reside here; who on going their round of visits fail not to ask for everything they see which strikes their fancy; and of course the honour of making a present to a prince, induces one at first readily to grant what they request; but no sooner is that done than they make fresh applications, till we are reduced to the rude necessity of putting the negative on most of them. These great personages are very richly dressed and attended by a numerous suite of slaves, who, like their princely masters, are much struck with the objects they see, but use less ceremony in their manner of obtaining them. These black princes (for that is the complexion of them and all the inhabitants) have by some means or other obtained the titles of Prince of Wales and Prince Will: the former has probably been called so by some jocular Englishmen as being the heir apparent, and the natives have adopted the term, not the only one they borrow from us. They have an officer styled Purser Jack, who seems to be at the head of the finance-department. Of dukes they have a prodigious number, who entertain us at their hotels for a dollar per day, and give us for dinner very good rice and curry. These noblemen, together with a numerous tribe of others of all ranks, make the earliest application to every one to solicit the honour of his company and custom; even before the ship has let go its anchor, they come alongside in their canoes, and produce written certificates of their honesty and abilities from those who have been here before: the purport of which is to inform you that the bearer has given them good cheer, washed their linen well, and supplied their ship punctually with all sorts of refreshments.

"The effect is striking and singular on entering the road to see a vast number of canoes, which are made of trunks of trees hollowed out, with three or four black fellows in each, their faces turned towards the front of the canoe, with paddles formed like a spade, digging away in the water, and moving with no small velocity. To keep their cockle-shells steady, and prevent them from overfetting, they have what is termed an outrigger: it is composed of two poles laid across the upper part of the canoe, and extending several feet beyond the edges thereof on each side, joined at the extremities by two flat pieces of wood, so that it appears like a square frame laid across the canoe: they are very long, but so narrow that one person can only fit breadthways.

"The price of every article here is regulated; and each ship has its contractor who engages to supply it with necessaries at the established rate.

"We find no other animals for our sea provisions but bullocks, goats, and fowls: the season for oranges is past, but we get most other tropical fruits; and whatever we want, have only to give in a list to a duke, and he provides us therewith. This, it will be thought, is a new character for a duke to appear in, and such it seems to be; but it is in fact only owing to the mode: they are their own stewards, and dispose of the produce of their estates themselves, which noblemen of other countries do by the intermediate aid of an agent; they at least act consistently with their characters by an urbaneity of manners, which one is surprized to meet with in a people inhabiting a small spot secluded from the rest of the civilized world. They have a regular form of government, and exercise the Mahometan religion; both were introduced by Arabians who passed over from the continent and subdued the country. The original Joanna natives are by no means thoroughly reconciled to this usurpation, and still look upon their conquerors with an evil eye. Like their sentiments, so are the colours of these two races of men very different: the Arabs have not so deep a tinge as the others, being of a copper complexion with better features and a more animated countenance. They consider a black streak under the eyes as ornamental; and this they make every day at their toilettes with a painting brush dipt in a kind of ointment. The custom of chewing the betel nut prevails greatly here, as in most of the Eastern countries; and answers to the fashion of smoking tobacco or taking snuff with us, except that with them it is more general. No one is without a purse or bag of betel; and it is looked on as a piece of civility to offer it to your friend when you meet him or take leave. See the articles ARECA and BETEL.

Their religion licenses a plurality of wives and likewise concubines. They are extremely jealous of them, and never allow any man to see the women: but female strangers are admitted into the haram; and some English ladies, whose curiosity has led them there, make favourable reports of their beauty, and richness of apparel displayed in a profusion of ornaments of gold, silver, and beads, in form of necklaces, bracelets, and ear-rings; they wear half a dozen or more in each through holes bored all along the outer rim of the ear.

The men seem not to look with an eye of indifference on our fair countrywomen notwithstanding they are of so different a complexion. One of the first rank among them being much smitten with an English young lady, wished to make a purchase of her at the price of 5000 dollars; but on being informed that the lady would fetch at least 20 times that sum in India, he lamented that her value was so far superior to what he could afford to give.

These people are very temperate and abstemious, wine being forbidden them by the law of Mahomed. They are frequent in prayer, attending their mosques three or four times a day. We are allowed to enter them on condition of taking off our shoes. These buildings are regular, but quite plain. In prayer the people prostrate themselves on the ground, frequently kissing it and expressing very fervent devotion.

Joanna town is close to the sea, situated at the foot of a very high hill, and about a mile and a half in circuit. The houses are inclosed either with high stone walls or palings made with a kind of reed; and the streets are little narrow alleys, extremely intricate and forming a perfect labyrinth. The better kind of houses are built of stone within a court-yard, have a portico to shield them from the sun, and one long lofty room where they receive guests, the other apartments being sacred to the women. The sides of their rooms are covered with a number of small mirrors, bits of china ware, and other little ornaments that they procure from ships which come here to refresh: the most superb of them are furnished with cane sofas covered with chintz and satin mattresses. Most of the people speak a little English: they profess a particular regard for our nation, and are very fond of repeating to you, that "Joanna-man and English-man all brothers;" and never fail to ask "how King George do?" In general they appear to be courteous and well disposed people, and very fair and honest in their dealings, though there are amongst them, as in all other nations, some viciously inclined; and theft is much practised by the lower class, notwithstanding the punishment of it is very exemplary, being amputation of both hands of the delinquent.

The inhabitants of this island, like those of most hot and tropical countries, are indolent, and do not improve by their labour the richness of that soil with which nature has blessed them. Climate here favours vegetation to such a degree as requires little toil in the husbandman; but that little is denied: so that beyond oranges, bananas, pine-apples, cocoa nuts, yams, and purlain (all growing spontaneously), few vegetables are met with. Nor are the natural beauties of the island inferior to its other advantages of plenty and fertility; the face of the country is very picturesque and pleasing, its scenes being drawn by the bold strokes of Nature's masterly pencil: lofty mountains clothed to their very summits, deep and rugged valleys adorned by frequent cataracts, cascades, woods, rocks, and rivulets, intermixed in "gay theatric pride," form the landscape. Groves are seen extending over the plains to the very edge of the sea, formed principally by the cocoa-nut trees, whose long and naked stems leave a clear uninterrupted passage beneath; while their tufted and overspreading tops form a thick shade above, and keep off the scorching rays of the sun. In these we pitch our tents and enjoy a short relief from the ennui of a tedious voyage.

In the interior part of the island, surrounded by mountains of a prodigious height, and about 15 miles from this town, is situated a sacred lake half a mile in circumference. The adjacent hills covered with lofty trees, and the unfrequented solitude of the place, seem more calculated to inspire religious awe in those who visit this sequestered spot, than any sanctity that is to be discovered in a parcel of wild ducks inhabiting it, which are deified and worshipped by the original natives, who consult them as their oracles on all important affairs, and sacrifice to them. Being extremely averse to conduct strangers there, they stipulate that all guns shall be left at a place five miles from the lake. The worship paid to these birds ensures their safety and tranquillity; and rendering them of course perfectly tame, they fearlessly approach any one who goes there. The Arabian part of the islanders hold this barbarous superstition in the utmost detestation; but dare not forbid the practice of it, so bigotted to it are the others."