Apparently in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea they hang a mask on their flute at night to protect it from bad spirits. There is one for sale on ebay, item number 3746058028 ( sorry I don’t know how to set up a link)- go take a look. I have elsewhere seen a photo of a Sepik flute wearing its mask. The mask sat at the top of the flute like a head, thus making the flute into a little person. For fans of animism, they also make very elaborate masks for their yams which they enter in a yam growing competition each harvest time. The mask makes the yam come to life. I guess the same is true of the flute mask. These people take their fluting seriously. We could learn something from this.
Here is a link to another flutemask -
http://www.diduknow.info/world/oceania_flutemask.html
You want to see the yams dressed in their masks? I for one would be wary of mocking them…and they are very large, can grow 3metres long, you have been warned…
http://www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/nuguinea/yammasko.htm
Those are very scary yams! 