Notes
Pronunciation of Native Words.

Native words occurring in the foregoing poem, should be pronounced like Italian; the double letter "ng" as the softer sound of the same letters in English. So "Maori" is pronounced "Mowree" (so as to rhyme with "dowry"—with an indication, however, of both the a and the o); and the nasal letters in "Tangi," precisely as in "slangy" (if there be such a word in English) with no separate sound of the g. The diphthong "ai" is sounded like long i or y. The emphasised syllables are moastly in the text marked with accents, though none are used in the written language.

To avoid what Mr. Rossetti happily calls, "tripping up the reader and sending him to the boltorn of the page" with continual references to explanatory notes, all such references have been omitted, with one or two exception, in the text, in the hope that the latter may be found sufficiently intelligible without them. Where for any reason notes appear to be desirable, they are inserted below, in the order in which the subjects they refer to occur in the book.