Teny is one of the individually named free-divinities of the air (kuth nhial, spirits of the above) recognized by the Nuer of the southern Sudan alongside Deng, Wiu, Mani, Diu and Rang. It is best documented among the western Nuer, where it seized the prophet Macot; Douglas Johnson records that Macot joined a raid in 1883, together with Wol Athiang, in which Dinka attacked the Egyptian garrison at Rumbek. Oral histories collected by Jedeit Riek and Naomi Pendle relate that after Macot's death Teny passed to his brother Puot. As with all Nuer divinities of the air, Teny is understood as one of the 'children of God', a partial manifestation of the one Spirit, Kwoth, which descends to seize particular persons and speak through them.