Maolimu is the tambaran of the third grade of the Ilahita initiation system, the spirit revealed to youths passing through adolescence. It belongs to the older, indigenous stratum of Arapesh cult spirits whose symbolism turns on masculine growth and sexuality, the sequence a boy ascends before reaching the imported high cult of Nggwal. Like the other tambaran, Maolimu is known to the uninitiated only through its voice and its secret paraphernalia, its true nature disclosed to novices in the trauma and revelation of initiation.