SOLWAN, OR THE WATERS OF COMFORT.; THE main subject of

this work is political morality, as politics and morals are understood by the Mahometan mind; the monarch be- ing the moving principle of government, and government con- fined to justice, liberality, kindness to the poor, at the same time keeping a tight hand over them, and a thorough submission to the Will of God,—a religions fatalism which receives every affliction as a decree for the best, not an arbitrary or blind determination of a necessity alike overriding gods and men. The topics of the treatises, addressed to kings and their advisers, viziers, are four in number,—trust in God, fortitude, patience, and contentment; the last of which is more general in its scope than the others. There is also a fifth, on abnegation, or the voluntary resignation of sovereignty ; but this is less enforced, and, as Ibn Zafer perhaps considered it of less likely occurrence, it is passed over more briefly.

" The greater contains the less " ; the lowly can better deduce an example from the high than the great from the little. The lessons of the Sicilian Arab philosopher of the twelfth century are in some degree applicable to all ; and this applicability is increased by the allegorical manner in which the wisdom is inculcated. If the European mind does not embody its lessons of life and mo- rals in epic and dramatic action, or other vivid form of story, it proceeds to teach by direct exposition dropping down to some- thing very like a discourse. The politeness of Oriental genius rather eschews the direct ; it teaches by parable, apologue, or apo- thegm. Ibn Zafer, aftel- opening with some authoritative dogmas from the Koran, proceeds to urge his moral by tales or fables

• Solwan ; or the Witers of Comfort. By Ibn Zafer, a Sicilian Arab of the Twelfth Century. From the Original Manuscript. By Michele Amari, Author of " The War of the Sicilian Vespers,' &c. Rendered in English by the Translator of " The Sicilian Vespers." In two volumes. Published by Bentley. studded with proverbial maxims. The allegory may not always be convincing; sometimes, indeed, it requires the acknowledgment of the individual for whose behoof the tale is told to enable the reader to catch the drift. The " wheel within the wheel "—for almost every person successively introduced into the apologue has an apologue of his own to tell—overlays the main story ; and the apothegms continually quoted by the author or his interlocutors impede the narrative. Still there is story; and the proverbs are often full of shrewd remark and worldly wisdom ; while each class is characteristic of Oriental mind and manners.

Michele Amari, the original translator of the Solwan from the Arabic, naturally, as a Sicilian, attaches importance to the work as being the production of a Sicilian Arab. Ibn Zafer, indeed, did not flourish during the palmy days of the Saracenic power in Sicily, or till the Norman conquest had overthrown their dominion ; neither did he reside much in his native land. As a true Maho- metan, he shrank from associating with infidels, and passed the greater portion of his life in wandering from court to court among the princes of the true faith. Hence, the Sicilian Saracen is merged in the Oriental Mussulman. The work itself furnishes no greater proof of the literary cultivation of the Mahometans in Sicily than may be inferred from the fact of its existence. The author's birthplace in a half Christian country, or the toleration which travel is apt to induce, may possibly be traced in a liberality of opinion when Christians or Magians are mentioned in his narra- tives : but this was perhaps a characteristic of the Saracens of the age, who looked upon the Turks with a more evil eye than upon the Christians. These, however, are secondary ; the true cha- racteristics of the Solwan are Mahometan and Oriental.

One of the tales, somewhat apropos des bottes is told by a king's jester, to divert the anger of his master which is gathering against the heir-apparent. The hero of the tale is the jester him- self ; and the story refers to a very ancient subject both in Oriental and European story—the transformation of a human being into various forms, the victim retaining his nature and his feel- ing of identity. It appears that the jester, in his youth, was an ardent and too general admirer of the fair sex : having fallen in love with a very beautiful woman, he persuaded her to become his wife, on a solemn promise of amendment. He soon, however, re- lapsed into his old ways ; but, unluckily for him, he had married an enchantress.

"And his wife perceiving his perverseness, made an incantation, by means of which she transformed him into a hideous Negro, and employed him in the execution of the meanest and most laborious tasks.

"This punishment, however, did not change his nature, nor did it produce any other effect than that of causing him to fall in love with another slave, a Negress ; to whom he paid his court with a perseverance which, having ex- hausted her patience, she too complained to her mistress the enchantress.

"This fresh delinquency of the king's servant having come to the cars of his wife, she was filled with indignation ; and having cast a fresh spell, she transformed him into an ass, and hired him out to perform the hardest labour and bear the heaviest burdens; in which condition he remained a long time. Nevertheless, this hard labour did not avail to quench his natural disposition, or prevent him from falling in love, as usual, with a she-ass, whom he never saw but he began to bray and run after her, with an eager- ness which could only be restrained by blows; so that the king's servant had a very hard life of it. Now it happened one day that the sorceress his wife went to pay a visit to the daughter of the king of that country, and was standing with her in an open gallery which commanded a view of all the roads of the neighbourhood on the very day that the king's servant had been hired by a decrepit old man, who had laden him with earthen- ware goods in two sacks, and was driving him to the palace of the princess; when, behold ! there, close to the palace, stood the she-ass who was the object of hie flame. So little control had he over himself, that he im- mediately set off to run towards her, braying after the fashion of an ass. The people on all sides assembled to beat liim; the goods he was carrying fell to the ground ; the old man to whom they belonged shouted for help ; all the lads and children gathered round to assault him ' • the she-ass ran away kicking with all her might, while the king's servant con- tinued his pursuit. The King's daughter, on beholding this absurd scene, could not contain her laughter; but the enchantress said to her, Oh, Daughter of the King, I could tell you that concerning this ass which should astonish you far more than what you have seen." L should be very glad to hear it,' replied the princess; and the woman then proceeded to re- late the whole story from the beginning, to the great surprise and amuse- ment of the princess, who at length entreated her to let me go free. The woman consented, and having destroyed the spell, the king's servant was restored to his former shape, and his first thought was to effect his escape from Seind."

There are various tales of a similar kind, many carrying with them a more definite moral. The proverbs with which the book abounds exhibit keen observation and deep thought : sometimes they are too Oriental in their nature, as well in judgment upon conduct as in their religious ideas, to have much bearing upon modern Western life • sometimes they are " as broad and general as the casing air." We gather a few.

"It is said, that a man will never be grateful for benefits, in the four following cases : if he already enjoys them ; if, by their means, he is able to throw off his subjection to his benefactor ; if he bears too much said about them ; and if he knows himself unable to requite them with any adequate return."

"It was said, Guard thyself from thine own designs-against thine enemy, as carefully as from his agtunst thyself.

" Many are they who have penshed in the attacks and ambuscades planned by themselves ; many a one has fallen into the well that he digged with his own hands, or has wounded himself with his own weapons."

"It is said, that five signs betoken the fall of a king : first, if he believe the words of gossips, and of those who cannot foresee the issue of events ; secondly, if he turn against those whom he ought to love; thirdly, if his revenue be not sufficient for his station ; fourthly, if he favour one and dis- miss another from caprice and not from reflection; and fifthly, if he despise the counsels of men of wisdom and experience."

"It was said, that none are so much to be pitied as the ministers of mo- narchs under age, and old men in love with maidens."

" It is said, there are three species of creatures which if you do not ledge them and nourish them as befits their worth will immediately turn their back upon you and break with you; and these are kings, men of letters, and this world's goods."

" News is deserving of credit in proportion to the understanding rather than to the veracity of him who retails it.

" The interpretation of which maxim is this: that the truthful narrator, if he have no understanding, is liable to be mistaken, as well as to be im- posed upon by designing persons. His truth and tr4stworthiness are only a warrant that he will not alter that which he repeats, but cannot confer the penetration required to fathom that which he beholds. A truthful but un- observant man, fixing his eyes upon the sun, may tell you that it does not move;, or looking at the moon, when the clouds are sweeping across her, may assert that she is proceeding with augmented speed upon her course. likewise, gazing from the deck of a vessel under sail, he may think it is the sea which is flowing from beneath it ; or being present at the sports of the conjuror his statement of what he has seen will differ widely from the reality. 'Even as hearing the voice of a parrot behind a curtain, he would maintain that he had heard that of a man. Thus, he will fall into false- hood, not by voluntary misrepresentation of the truth, but by incapacity to perceive it.'

Michele Amari has rendered a service to literature in disinterring this curious work of the twelfth century and rendering it accessible to - the European public. For general readers, at least in this country, it would have been better had more life been thrown into the accompanying matter whether notes or introduction ; especially the latter, which handles the subject of Saracenic Sicilian civiliza- tion too curtly for completeness, too minutely for a sketch. The remote ideas and the formal manner of Oriental composition give occasional dryness to the Solfcan. The extraneous matter is nearly as large as the book itself, and, beyond a description of the object of the work, and the life and age of the author, was not wanted. There is a good deal of erudition in the notes, and for that matter in the introduction; but it is of a dead kind, add has the effect of encumbering the original.