Elaborate tobacco pipes are both utilitarian and prestige items used by male and female members of the royal court and displayed at state occasions (photo: Queen Mother Njapndunke of the Mum, 1905). This pipe depicts two figures on the shaft: a woman playing a gourd rattle and a lute, and a man playing a long serrated rasp. On the bow are fruits, serpent spirals (symbol of the ancestors, origin of settlement, and the military power of the king), and rows of cowrie shells (once used as money, now symbolizing wealth).