This estimate takes no account of the large irregular expenses, for instance replacing oxen or weddings. Most households would be facing at least one demand of this type most of the time. On the marriage of a daughter, the father usually breaks even, if he does not reap an immediate cash benefit. But the marriage of a son is an expensive business, involving, in 1950, a bride price of up to T.L.500 and perhaps as much again for food, entertainers, presents and new clothes. A new house people reckoned at about T.L.I,000 or more, according to size and style. Timber and hewn stone were expensive items, and the services of a mason and a carpenter, even in the village, cost a good deal. Many households were actually engaged in building. Each new married couple requires a new room, and moreover, many villagers were dissatisfied with the old windowless houses, often shared-with the animals, and often using the natural `rock for at least one wall. Between 1949 and 1955 the housing standard in Sakaltutan rose strikingly.
Even the wealthier households in Elbashï had basically the same items of expenditure, though with larger numbers and higher standards they consumed far more. They were better dressed, built larger houses, gave more lavish weddings, paid higher bride prices, and used far more luxuries - paraffin, pressure lamps to impress guests, fancy coffee cups and drinking glasses, and so forth.
All these figures ignore another important factor - they are based on normal yields. A partial crop failure immediately reduces the poor to near starvation, the moderate to poverty, and even the comfortable to stringent economy. For one year, or even two, housing, weddings, clothing replacements, tool and