INTRODUCTION 9 



it has seemed fitting that they should be distinguished by italics; 

 but, once given the entree, it is assumed that, as a rule, they will be 

 granted the rights of free speech without further explanation. 



A glossary, which explains all the Hawaiian words used in the 

 prose text, is appended. Let no one imagine, however, that by the 

 use of this little crutch alone he will be enabled to walk or stumble 

 through the foreign ways of the simplest Hawaiian mele. Notes, 

 often copious, have been appended to many of the mele, designed 

 to exhaust neither the subject nor the reader, but to answer some 

 of the questions of the intelligent thinker. 



Thanks, many thanks, are due, first, to those native Hawaiians who 

 have so far broken with the old superstitious tradition of concealment 

 as to unearth so much of the unwritten literary wealth stored in 

 Hawaiian memories; second, to those who have kindly contributed 

 criticism, suggestion, material at the different stages of this book's 

 progress; and, lastly, to those dear friends of the author's youth — 

 living or dead — whose kindness has made it possible to send out this 

 fledgling to the world. The author feels under special obligations to 

 Dr. Titus Munson Coan, of New York, for a painstaking revision of 

 the manuscript. 



Honolulu, Hawaii. 



