The yimaka are the spirit-beings of the forest and the uncultivated wild, a class of powers dwelling beyond the gardens and hamlets rather than a single named being. They are the mythic donors of the bull-roarers, whose roaring voice terrifies and awes the boys during the male initiations: the Baruya say their ancestors found these instruments as arrows sticking in the trunks of certain trees, left there by the yimaka. As inhabitants of the wild the yimaka are dangerous and potent, and contact with them belongs to the same secret male domain as the flutes and the bull-roarers themselves.