Haci Bayram (B) had been a great man, and had served as District Officer under the imperial administration. He had had at least five sons on whom presumably his eminence was built. He had crowned it all by making the pilgrimage to Mecca, in those days a costly trip. Spent up, he had returned to the village a Haci, to die in modest circumstances. His five sons had inherited a modicum of land and one beast each. They began their independence poor.
Of these five, three younger full brothers were still alive in 1951. The eldest survivor had had four daughters, all by this time married. His land was worked by a stepson, who, I was assured, had no right to inherit it. The old man was poor and insignificant. The second of the three had had three sons of his own; his first wife had died after a long illness, and this, he said, had ruined him. Yet his household had a comfortable sufficiency.
The youngest brother, Hayip (B), had five sons, all adult and all but one, the village headmaster, still living in his household. The eldest, who had a son already old enough to work, had been headman about the time of the land rush. Hayip had not been slow to seize the opportunity and his was one of the wealthiest households in the village. He had an imposing guest room, and was having a new dwelling house for the family built