146 Mr Rivers, The colour vision of the Eskimo. 
This definiteness of nomenclature for green and blue, and 
especially for blue, is very exceptional in the languages of people 
in stages of civilization similar to that of the Eskimo. Other 
subarctic races, as the Chukchis 1 and the Samoyeds 2 , are said to 
show the same absence of definite terminology for green and blue 
which is characteristic of nearly all primitive languages. 
The other divisions of the Eskimo race do not appear to be as 
advanced as those examined by me. Bessels found that the 
Eskimo of Smith Sound confused brown and blue and had no 
names for gradations of intensity, and Almquist found that the 
colour names of the Eskimo of Behring Straits were indefinite. It 
is possible that the Labrador Eskimo examined by me had become 
exceptionally definite in their nomenclature owing to European 
influence, for in Erdmann’s dictionary tungajoktak is given as 
meaning green as well as blue, and two of the Labrador Eskimo 
examined by Virchow called violet “ kirnitangajuk ” (blackish). 
The tendency to confuse blue and black in nomenclature 
which is present in nearly all more or less primitive languages 
seems to have been completely absent in the Eskimo examined by 
me, though possibly the tendency may have been shown in a slight 
degree by the woman who called blue-green “iviujukkenangaijuk” 
(blackish green). The Eskimo of Hudson Bay (Central Eskimo) 
called black “ mugtuk ” while those of the southern part of the 
American side of Behring Straits use this word for blue (Rink). 
The latter also use a word tanaqtok” for black which Rink states 
is possibly related to or confused with the word used elsewhere for 
blue. 
One may also see in the words used by the Labrador Eskimo 
some traces of the prominence of red in colour nomenclature which 
is the most characteristic feature of primitive colour languages. 
Several individuals called orange and violet by some modifi- 
cation of the word for red. They were more influenced by the 
red component in these colours than by the yellow and blue 
components respectively. 
In another respect the Eskimo language resembles all the 
other more or less primitive languages with which I am acquainted, 
viz. in the absence of a word for brown. When asked the names 
for brown wools and papers, the indecision and delay in answering 
was in marked contrast with their behaviour with other colours. 
The browns shown were most commonly named by means of some 
modification of the word for red, while others were termed yellowish 
or greenish or even bluish. Two other words “ sinanuk ” and 
“ ayqangatuk ” were used which were also applied to grey. One 
1 See Almquist, Die wissenscliaft. Ergebnisse d. Vega-expedition, 1883, vol. i. 
p. 42. 
2 See Kirchhoff, Das Ausland , 1883, p. 546. 
