6 WILD ANIMAL CELEBRITIES 



have to allow such an animal in such close 

 proximity, and also the marvelous control she 

 must have over the lion to make him keep so 

 still. 



This lion Tula was nearly always amiable 

 and affectionate when with her, but with the 

 men, and on rare occasions with her, he would 

 suddenly flare out with such a burst of pas- 

 sion that he was by no means an animal to 

 be trusted. And yet, at the end of her per- 

 formance, Miss Heliot would take this lion 

 on her shoulders— he weighed nearly five hun- 

 dred pounds— and carry him off the stage! 

 I asked her one day how she managed to do 

 it, and she told me she had had him since he 

 was a young cub ; that she had begun to carry 

 him in this manner when he was quite small 

 and that, by constantly doing it day by day, 

 she had been able to bear as heavy a weight 

 as five hundred pounds on her shoulders, 

 keep it there and walk across the floor with 

 it for a few minutes. 



Towards strangers this lion was anything 

 but amiable. I was in the lions' stable one 



