I grok that, though it's mind-boggling to me that a language with first-class functions wouldn't have either list slicing a la Python or cons/car/cdr. Presumably this is because the built-in listlike object is the associative array (which gives the whole thing an uncomfortably PHP-like feel), but it still leaves me wondering where the tools that fit in my hands so well have gone.

And the whole business of indexing from 1 is just ridiculous. This is computer science, not biology.