Tehu'aingabenga is the chief of the district deities, the class of gods most intimately bound to human life. Where Tehainga'atua ruled the land and the elements from a lofty distance, Tehu'aingabenga was the immediate patron of people, invoked for health, offspring, garden increase, successful fishing and safe canoe voyages. His many 'sons' served as the tutelary gods of individual lineages and homesteads, so that every worshipper stood in a direct ritual relationship to him. He was reckoned a descendant of the sky-god couple; sources differ on whether the tradition makes him the son or, at one remove, the grandson of Tehainga'atua. His sister Baabenga was the leading goddess of the same class.