The Walking Stick!

Stuck for a blip today, my eyes fell on this object. The friends, whose house and menagerie we are watching, are frequent visitors to Botswana having lived there for some years; as a result, their home has many African artefacts decorating its wall. This is the handle end of a walking stick, though I didn't realise until I had picked it up for close inspection that it actually had any practical function.