The old folk know why the rains are so heavy that year. The god of the river is angry. He appeared to a group of farmers at the ford to the north, blue-faced and bleary-eyed, and said they’d allowed the Gauravayan army to cross His sacred way in the spring without offering the proper sacrifices. As punishment, he will swell and rage and let no-one cross. The farmers offered him a goat but he asked what use a river god has for a goat. They offered him a bowl of milk, and he said the same.