The Igbo people are a meta-ethnic people native to present-day south-central and southeastern Nigeria. There are also large ethnic Igbo population are in Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, as well as outside Africa. Geographically, the Igbo homeland is divided into two unequal sections by the Niger River – an eastern (which is the larger of the two) and a western section. The Igbo people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Their language is a part of the Niger-Congo language family. It is divided into numerous regional dialects and somewhat mutually intelligible with the larger "Igboid" cluster. Agbogho mmwo, or "maiden spirit," masks are worn by men at festivals that honor important deities. They represent the Igbo ideal of female beauty: small, balanced features, elaborate hairstyles, and delicate tattoos. The men who dance agbogho mmwo masks wear colorful, tight-fitting fiber costumes, entertaining the crowd with exaggerated versions of women's dances. Every Igbo town differs in terms of its range of festivals and types of masks, and oftentimes the spiritual and stylistic forms intermingle between regions. Making it difficult to trace masks to one particular location. However, masking traditions throughout the various Igbo regions share underlying themes and similar spirits, and so the purpose of this maiden mask can be at least somewhat clarified. Of the two most important mask types among the Igbo. Those idealizing the qualities of young women, and those representing the powers of men, the maiden mask embodies the former. When the mask is worn, always by a man, the maiden spirit a dancer personifies represents the ideals of youthful feminine grace and beauty, albeit exaggerated both in the masks and the performance of them. Igbo models of beauty are based on both physical and moral dimensions. Maiden masks are used mostly during agricultural festivals (usually the dry season) and the second funerals of prominent society members. On latter occasions maiden spirits are invoked alongside other spirits as appropriate escorts of the highly respected dead and moving into the spirit world. During agricultural or other ceremonies, however, maiden spirits appear to aid in watching over the living and to promote abundant harvests, fertility, and general prosperity. Maiden spirits are light-hearted in contrast to more menacing spirits of the Igbo world, which often generate a more serious atmosphere. Maiden maskers perform almost theatrically, as if in a play, their purpose to entertain both human and spirit audiences.