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.