Choppa is the Karachay-Balkar power of the storm, presiding over thunder and lightning and over the rain the herders and farmers depended on. His worship centred on the round-dance and procession that gave the rite its name, in which villagers circled a stone cairn, the Choppany tashy, chanting 'Elia-Choppa' to draw down rain in time of drought. A person or place struck by lightning was regarded as claimed by Choppa and made an object of reverence, the dead honoured with song and a cairn rather than lamented. Sources differ on whether Choppa is a distinct deity or a ritual aspect of Eliya, the thunder-name drawn from the prophet Elijah.