THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. xu. — AUGUST, 1879. — No. 8. 
ADJECTIVES OF COLOR IN INDIAN LANGUAGES. 
BY ALBERT S. GATSCHET. 
QCIENTIFIG inquiry into the cause and frequency of partial 
and total color-blindness among civilized nations has prompted 
some naturalists to extend their researches on this deficiency and 
on the sense of color (the faculty of color perception) over the 
rude populations inhabiting foreign lands. Inquiries of this 
order may be considerably helped by publishing all the terms 
referring to colors found among Asiatic, African, American and 
Polynesian nations and tribes, and they have been advanced 
already through careful comparisons of the color adjectives in use 
among the ancient Greeks and Romans with those of modern 
European languages. 
Indians possess a large number of color adjectives, and the 
great tendency of their languages to specialize every object 
observed easily accounts for this. But it often requires a long 
familiarity: with individuals of atribe to obtain a series of color 
names approaching to completeness; some of these names are 
seldom used and therefore not readily remembered even by the 
most intelligent natives. I therefore resorted to the expedient of - 
composing a scale of colored paper slips insensibly blending into 
each other; this series was arranged in several groups—gray, 
blue, green, yellow, red, brown, the end colors being white and 
black. To prevent confusion by presenting too many color- 
shades pasted on the same card-board, I have restricted the num- 
ber of slips to twenty, and this seemed to be sufficient for the 
Purpose. Simultaneously I inquired for the color-shade of cer- 
_ tain objects unalterable in their color, as bark of cinnamon, ripe 
VOL, XIII,—No, VIII. 7 33 Fo ae 
