A major symbol of chieftaincy is this bonnet ornamented with leopard claws. The Kikongo word for bonnet, mpu, comes from the Portuguese word for hat, but similar headgear was already worn by Kongo kings in the 1400s. Mpu came to mean not only the bonnet but the chiefship itself, thought of as a specific force not unlike that which empowered an nkisi, or power figure. By virtue of his initiation as the representative of this force, the chief became a "leopard." Early on, Europeans greatly admired fine, patterned weaving such as this.