In Elbashï some of the shops were rivals to the guest rooms. One or two shops were started in guest rooms. Conversely, a shop in a separate room of its own tended to draw a group of men together to chat, offering the advantages of warmth and shelter without the social implications of guest room hospitality.
In both villages similar groups met the whole year round. Once winter is over, everyone is busier, and the weather makes it possible and pleasant to sit out of doors. The guest rooms are left empty. People gather in the evenings, and even during the day, except at harvest time. But no hospitality is implied and it is easy to join or leave such a group. People choose a group near at hand. Moreover, whereas in the winter the young men and children attend in the guest rooms for the sake of warmth, and are expected to behave respectfully, as soon as the weather permits they prefer to form their own groups, according to distinctions of age.
In spite of the greater informality, the groups had recognised sites and a fairly steady membership. In Sakaltutan one such group formed in the Upper quarter, another in the central space by the headman's house, a third by the mosque, and a fourth at the roadside in the Lower quarter. I was not in Elbashï at the right season to observe the corresponding groups. I would guess that in a larger, more heterogeneous, village the meetings are more casual still; and that some of the wealthiest men would keep their guest rooms open and use them all through the year. In the heat of the summer at this altitude guest rooms are cool by day and keep off the evening chill.
It is impossible to sort out of this complex data any simple principles of attachment to groups. The lowest and poorest were prepared to accept warmth and company more or less anywhere they could find it; the nearer home the better. People who regularly attended a guest room can be assumed to have friendly relations with the owner, and where a person avoids the guest room of a close kinsman or neighbour some hostility is probable. Large lineages normally congregate in the guest room