Masks represent protective spirits that can take on animal forms or can appear as strange spirits. These spirits watch over a family, clan or community, and, if the rules for their propitiation are followed correctly, provide for fertility, health, and prosperity of the owners. Thus the masks provide for the continuity of life .
When the owner of a mask dies, it may be passed on to his son, or it may be retired to the lineage spirit house where it slowly decays. Years later a diviner may prescribe a new mask in the same form.
Masks appear at numerous events throughout the dry season . They dance to drive evil forces away from the community. They participate in funerals, and at initiation rituals