238 IN AFRICA 



eral days and that it might be well to shoot a kon- 

 goni. The latter knows what is passing in your 

 mind long before you have made a single move- 

 ment to betray your intentions. He begins to 

 edge away, ready in an instant to go bounding rap- 

 idly beyond rifle shot. 



I've seen a herd of kongoni standing quite near, 

 watching me with curious interest, but without fear. 

 Perhaps I was intent upon something else and 

 hardly noticed them. Suddenly a villainous thought 

 might enter my head, such as "That big kongoni 

 has enormous horns," and instantly the herd would 

 prick up their ears, run a few steps, and then turn 

 to verify their suspicions. Then, if the villainous 

 thought still lurked in my brain, they would sneeze 

 shrilly and go galloping away in the distance. 

 There is no way to explain this except to attribute it 

 to thought transference, and this in spite of the fact 

 that the kongoni doesn't understand English. 



The kongoni is found nearly every place in East 

 Africa. Along the railway between Makindu and 

 Nairobi the species is called Coke's hartebeest. Far- 

 ther up the railway the species is Neumann's harte- 

 beest, while still beyond, on the Guas Ngishu Plat- 

 eau and the Mau escarpment, the species is called 

 Jackson's hartebeest. In the main the three vari- 

 eties are almost the same ; it is in the horns that the 

 chief distinction lies, with lesser differences in color 

 and stature. The hunter has been allowed to kill 

 ten of each on his license, but under the new game 

 ordinance in force since December, 1909, only four 



