The various peoples known as Baga and numbering some 65,000 occupy a narrow stretch of marshy lowland along the Atlantic lagoons of the Republic of Guinea. They grow rice in the marshy area flooded six months of the year, during which time the only way to get around is by a dugout canoe. The men also fish and grow cola nuts. They believe in a single god who is assisted by a male and a female spirit. The nimba masks are among the most imposing of all African masks. It represents the idea of the fertile woman. The exaggerated, pendulous breasts are typical for these masks, which had a double function: sterile women in the Simo society invoked it as a goddess of fertility, and it was used at the first-fruit (rice) rituals, symbolically associating female fertility with the increase of the grain. The masks are used by dancers at birth, marriages, harvest festivals and other joyful ceremonies.