simple beginner question about lists and negative index

[jmDesktop]

This program:

s = 'abcde'
i = -1
for i in range (-1, -len(s), -1):
    print s[:i], i

gives

abcd -1
abc -2
ab -3
a -4

Why doesn't the first one have the e if -1 is the end of the list?  In
Dive Into Python it said that -1 was the end of the list.  Thanks.

it is from Chun's book, slightly modified by me to see the index.