Baboons often show their passion and threaten their enemies in a very
odd manner, namely, by opening their mouths widely as in the act of
yawning. Mr. Bartlett has often seen two baboons, when first placed in
the same compartment, sitting opposite to each other and thus
alternately opening their mouths; and this action seems frequently to
end in a real yawn. Mr. Bartlett believes that both animals wish to
show to each other that they are provided with a formidable set of
teeth, as is undoubtedly the case. As I could hardly credit the reality
of this yawning gesture, Mr. Bartlett insulted an old baboon and put
him into a violent passion; and he almost immediately thus acted. Some
species of Macacus and of Cereopithecus[514] behave in the same manner.
Baboons likewise show their anger, as was observed by Brehin with those
which he kept alive in Abyssinia, in another manner, namely, by
striking the ground with one hand, “like an angry man striking the
table with his fist.” I have seen this movement with the baboons in the
Zoological Gardens; but sometimes the action seems rather to represent
the searching for a stone or other object in their beds of straw.
Mr. Sutton has often observed the face of the _Macacus rhesus_, when
much enraged, growing red. As he was mentioning this to me, another
monkey attacked a _rhesus_, and I saw its face redden as plainly as
that of a man in a violent passion. In the course of a few minutes,
after the battle, the face of this monkey recovered its natural tint.
At the same time that the face reddened, the naked posterior part of
the body, which is always red, seemed to grow still redder; but I
cannot positively assert that this was the case. When the Mandrill is
in any way excited, the brilliantly coloured, naked parts of the skin
are said to become still more vividly coloured.
With several species of baboons the ridge of the forehead projects much
over the eyes, and is studded with a few long hairs, representing our
eyebrows. These animals are always looking about them, and in order to
look upwards they raise their eyebrows. They have thus, as it would
appear, acquired the habit of frequently moving their eyebrows. However
this may be, many kinds of monkeys, especially the baboons, when
angered or in any way excited, rapidly and incessantly move their
eyebrows up and down, as well as the hairy skin of their
foreheads.[515] As we associate in the case of man the raising and
lowering of the eyebrows with definite states of the mind, the almost
incessant movement of the eyebrows by monkeys gives them a senseless
expression. I once observed a man who had a trick of continually
raising his eyebrows without any corresponding emotion, and this gave
to him a foolish appearance; so it is with some persons who keep the
corners of their mouths a little drawn backwards and upwards, as if by
an incipient smile, though at the time they are not amused or pleased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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