Va, Rain personified, is a leading figure of the Hwempetla cycle, where he appears as a householder whose daughter the culture hero desires. Rain warns that should the marriage succeed the rains would never cease and would devour the hero's fields; when the girl is nonetheless carried off, Rain ranges over the whole earth in search of her, tearing houses apart and lashing the trees, until the hero eludes him by hiding in a beer jar in Rain's own compound. In Kapsiki symbolism rain is 'white', the colour of blessing and clarity. Where shala is the deity who ultimately sends or withholds the rains, Va is the storm itself endowed with voice and will.