The Temne occupy some 29,000 square kilometers of Sierra Leone's Northern Province. The Temne language is included in Greenberg's West Atlantic category and in Dalby's MEL category, which is a subdivision of West Atlantic. Dalby found at least five Temne dialects. The traditional Temne creator-High God is Kurumasaba, who, in judging the Temne, is thought to be kind, generous, just, and infallible. Kurumasaba is never approached directly, only through patrilineal ancestors as intermediaries.