166 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
trainer’s success; and ceaseless vigilance is the 
price of his life. He endeavors first to get ac- 
quainted with his charges—to accustom them to 
his presence and voice. The voice is more to 
them than the appearance. To enter the cage 
in a new costume, without first speaking, would 
be to invite death, for the lions would probably 
not recognize their master until they heard his 
voice. 
The would-be trainer must study his beasts, 
doing his best to ascertain their individual char- 
acters in order that he may adapt himself to 
them. A few early prove themselves quite un- 
manageable; and it is said to be easier to teach 
an adult captive, fresh from the wilderness, than 
an animal born and reared in the menagerie. As 
for the training, it consists, to quote Le Roux, 
who declares himself giving the words of an 
expert, “in commanding the lion to perform the 
exercises which please him; that is to say, to 
make him execute, from fear of the whip, those 
leaps which he would naturally take in his wild 
state.” 
Barnum’s trainer, alluded to above, says that 
lions are the smartest of wild beasts. ‘“ You can 
train a lion to do the ordinary tricks in trade — 
jumping through hoops and over gates, standing 
on his hind legs, and so on —in about five weeks’ 
constant work. In this time-table of wild beasts, 
you can estimate that it would take a lioness 
