148 Mr Rivers, The colour vision of the Eskimo. 
had the opportunity of investigating, it reaches its most marked 
development in the island of Mabuiag in Torres Straits where a 
man might give more than thirty names to different colours all 
derived from familiar natural objects. 
It seems to be much less common to denote differences of 
colour by using modifications of a few colour names. Among the 
languages of which I have had previous experience I have only 
met with a slight tendency in this direction in one or two cases. 
Psychologically the latter usage would seem to stand much 
higher, for it implies the presence of definite abstract ideas of 
colour while the multiplication of names is only one instance of 
the tendency to specialisation which is one of the chief features of 
the stages of mental development found among savage races 1 . 
The use of affixes is the characteristic feature of the Eskimo 
language generally but it is perhaps suggestive that this higher 
psychological development of nomenclature, as shown by the 
presence of distinct abstract terms for colour, should exist to- 
gether with exceptional definiteness in the nomenclature for green 
and blue. 
I endeavoured to ascertain from the natives the derivation of 
the terms they used. They told me that the word for green was 
derived from ivik, grass; that kaijuk 2 was the name of the yellow 
fox and that a^jangatuk was derived from a^jak 3 , powder, but 
could not tell me the derivation of the other terms used. 
Rink states that the word for red is derived from auk, blood 4 , 
the affix -paluqpoq (Greenland) meaning “ has the appearance of.” 
The word songapaluktuk obtained by Virchow is obviously formed 
in the same way. This word is derived from songaq (sungaq), 
bile. The words for yellow and green in other subarctic races are 
derived in the same way. The Chukchis use a word “ dlilil ” for 
yellow and green which means bile (Almquist) 5 and the word used 
by the Samoyeds for both green and blue, “ padiraha,” is closely 
related to the word “padea,” bile (Kirchhoff) 6 . The Voguls are said 
to call green and yellow “vosrem ospe,” meaning “like bile” 
(Budenz, quoted by Kirchhoff). 
Erdmann and Rink give a word “ tungo ” blue or black berry 
1 Both usages are found in the languages of civilized races. The tendency 
towards specialisation in colour names is found in the colour vocabulary in popular 
use, while in scientific methods of nomenclature all colours are described as modifi- 
cations of a few standard sensations. 
2 The word kaijuk is also said to mean ‘blood.’ See Rink, pp. 107, 117, and 
also Herzog, Zeitsch.f. Ethnol. vol. x., 1878, p. 449. 
3 Rink gives what is probably the same wc v d as argsak, ashes. 
4 Hall ( Life with the Esquimaux , 1864, vol. n., p. 207) found this word (“ oug”) 
was used for anything red when the Eskimo \.ere talking with a stranger not well 
versed in their language. 
15 loc. cit. 
6 loc. cit. 
