Tongaiti is one of the five great gods borne to the sky father Atea by Paparoa-i-te-itinga in the Rarotongan genealogy, alongside Tangaroa, Rongo, Tane and the divine Tangiia. William Wyatt Gill recorded that his visible form, or aria, was the white and black spotted lizard, and a Rarotongan by-name, Tonga-iti-mata-rau, styles him the many-eyed one, the wise god who sees all things. A short Rarotongan tradition set down by Manuiri tells how Tonga-iti came to Rarotonga from Avaiki with his wife Mai-ove, who was also called Rangatira, and in the traditions of the high priest Te Ariki-tara-are he is counted among the gods who consented to sail with Tangiia's fleet to Rarotonga. He was honoured elsewhere in the southern Cook Islands as well, so that the lizard remained a sacred and ominous creature on Rarotonga.