1 66 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 



