column limit on multiget_slice or get_slice

[Courtney Robinson]

Is it possible to get the first x columns from a row without knowing the 
column names?
So far i've been working with just grabbing all the columns in a row or just 
getting a specific column that i know the name of.
If it is possible, can anyone point me in the right direction of how to do 
this?
I'm using 0.6.4 with the thrift interface in java, i use hector but i'd much 
prefer knowing how its done via thrift first :)
thanks