One may divide the people to be found in any guest room on any given occasion roughly into four classes: the members of the household, regular attenders from other households, occasional attenders whose presence or absence does not call for remark, and those whose presence is unexpected. These last may be paying a social call or they may have special business with one or more of the regular members.
Of course these four classes grade into one another along a continuous scale. In the following analysis I am concerned with the regular attenders. I begin with guest rooms serving mainly the household to which they belong and work towards the larger groups.
The guest room of Haci Ismet (T), after the first rush of visitors in November on his return from Mecca, was used only by the household. His two sons, and their sons, were often to be seen in the other more sociable guest rooms. Their own guest room was always warm because the old man was sick and could not leave it, yet no neighbours ever came to sit there.
The guest room of Abdullah (M) was used up to a point by members of his lineage though only occasionally. I have also seen his cross-cousin (mother's brother's son) in it, who is also his sister's widower, a man I have never seen in any other guest room except for strictly business reasons. There was no group