Of course, exceptions occur. Hayip (B) of Elbashï was the. youngest of three surviving brothers, but by far the most wealthy and successful. His elder brothers used his guest room frequently - by grace, not by right. Of three Sakaltutan brothers, the eldest had married into their mother's village, two hours away. The youngest made a reasonably comfortable income for his small family as a permanent worker in the Kayseri textile mill. Bektes the second, was for years allowed to work the whole of their joint small patrimony, from which he made a precarious and inadequate living. When a quarrel with his eldest brother over marriage arrangements precipitated a division of the land, he complained that his younger brother was `cold', and did nothing to help. Yet they remained on speaking terms.
More serious quarrels between brothers are not uncommon, usually over the division of the patrimony. I did not actually, hear of any cases of fratricide, though in two cases to my knowledge brother fired at brother, once in Sakaltutan (p. 125), and oce, in another village, on the very day on which I made a visit. The expected intimacy and the habitual physical proximity of brothers make these fraternal quarrels bitter and violent.
Half-brothers are fairly common in a society where polygamy is still possible, and where premature death and remarriage are common events. Yet no word exists to distinguish half- from full brothers. When the fact is relevant, a specific statement is necessary - `his mother was separate' or `his father was separate'.
Paternal half-brothers grow up in the same household, and in terms of enforced intimacy their relationship is little different from that of full brothers. In fact, they are less close. I knew no case of half-brothers growing up in a polygamous household with living mothers still the current wives of their fathers. Rather one finds elder brothers who are stepsons of the new wife, while the younger brothers are her full sons. Often the elder stepsons leave the household before their father's death.