Northern, T. (The Art of Cameroon, Washington D.C., 1984, p.148, fig.79) illustrates a similar mask in the Franklin collection which she describes as a female dance mask called ngoin, which usually follows the leader mask in the dance sequence which includes several Ngoin masks to complement the male human faces. The treatment of the present mask, both with regard to the handling of volumes and attention to detail, is more subtle and successful than in the Franklin mask, which leads us to deduce our mask was carved at an earlier date.