Dead Mayan ancestors were often depicted as flowers growing in the afterlife. The artists’ fanciful designs anticipate and rival the imaginative anthropomorphism of Lewis Carrol’s Garden of Live Flowers and J.J. Grandville’s Flowers Personified. These fanciful sculptures of old men emerging from lilies also served, like the earlier “Embracing Couple” figurine, as whistles used in various rituals. This 4 min. video of ancient ceramic Inca wind instruments offers a demo of their varied sounds: https://twistedsifter.com/videos/inca-whistling-water-vessels-mimic-animal-calls/