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xiv
PREFACE.
Some of the obscurities and difficulties of the tales are explained in the notes at the end of the volume. For all that relates to the language I must refer the reader to my handbook of the Swahili of Zanzibar, which is now ready for the printer's hands, and will I hope soon be published. In order to read the Swahili it is only necessary to remember that the vowels are pronounced as in Italian, the consonants as in English, and that there is always an accent on the last syllable but one.
A short account of the town of Zanzibar and its inhabitants has been published by Messrs. Bell and Daldy, as the Occasional Paper of the Central African Mission, No. IV.
Edward Steere.
Little Steeping,
Michaelmas, 1869.
