Isn't there a substring(start, end)-function????

[Dave]

Hi all,

Am I blind, or what? I can't find any quick way to do the following in
Python:

substring(beginIndex, endIndex) witch returns the substring between
beginIndex and endIndex.

Like:
text = "If someone attacks you with a banana"
print text.substring(0,3)
Should print "If "

I've found absolutely everything else that I expect from a modern
programming language, but none of the modules (not even "string"!)
seems to have what I'm looking for.

Please tell me I'm blind!

Dave