Two cases from Elbashï also illustrate lineage feuds; one of these involved the whole village and will be dealt with in the next section. The other was a purely limited lineage quarrel. The Z lineage were a well-knit and self-conscious group. But one household head, Melik, had quarrelled with the rest of the group at some time in the past and was küs with the lineage as a whole. He was next door neighbour to a poor member of B lineage, which figures in the major dispute described in the next section.
Melik made a window in a wall overlooking a patch of ground which belonged to his neighbour Hasan. Hasan allowed this to pass. Melik then made it into a door. Hasan objected, but Melik took no notice. Hasan collected his agnates, about a dozen young men, who `surrounded' Melik's house, presumably intending to block up the doorway by force. Melik and his three grown sons opened fire from inside and the attackers withdrew. Some days later, Hasan chased Melik's eldest son, and shot him in the back. The victim recovered, the door was blocked up, and there the matter rested, except that Hasan himself was worse off than ever, since he was now compelled to remain in hiding in the village caves to avoid arrest by the gendarmes. For a specific affront, Hasan was able to collect most if not all of the younger members of his lineage, whereas Melik forfeited the support of his, because he had previously quarrelled with them, and was küs. Once the mass action which followed ended inconclusively, one principal set out premeditatedly with his gun to attack a principal on the other side. Why he took so drastic a step I do not know. Possibly after being driven off, he felt himself both publicly humiliated and in danger of losing his case.
In this institution we find many of the typical ideas and customs of the feuding situation the solidarity of close agnates, the duty to seek revenge, the notion of honour, the importance of `insults' to women for whom the men are responsible. Yet compared with many examples of feuding it is highly informal and unsystematic. In practice, not all agnates feel themselves committed; revenge is not necessarily specific or immediate; no system of compensation or reconciliation seems to exist and