After an act of homicide the tension is notably great. Those involved in a hot feud walk in daily fear of their lives. People said that men at enmity normally avoid each other's part of the village, and that in fact it is not easy to kill a fellow villager. My own observations indicate the direct opposite. As far as I can see nothing could be simpler than to surprise a man and shoot him, given that one is a close neighbour and that time is on one's side. I have recorded four attacks of this kind although admittedly only one was fatal.
It has been commonly argued that the existence of unsettled blood debts within a small community of this kind is intolerable. Evans-Pritchard, for example, says of the Nuer, `a feud cannot be tolerated within a village', (Evans-Pritchard (1940) p. 159) and a similar argument is used by Colson (1962) p. 119f. The argument, a priori, would seem to have equal weight when applied to these small, tightly-knit Turkish communities. Why does it not fit the facts?
The disorganised and unsystematic nature of the feud may itself provide an answer. Everyone fiercely insisted on the duty of revenge. But this may be indefinitely postponed. In the course of years the implacable may become less implacable. There is some evidence to show that after a time the offer of a woman in marriage to the victim's lineage to provide heirs to replace him, and to establish a political alliance may end the state of open hostility. Moreover, new quarrels are constantly happening. Each new generation is likely to see new elopements, new arguments about land, and so on. Old enemies may well find themselves on the same side. If every serious quarrel lasted for ever no lineage would be on speaking terms with any other. In fact, therefore, in time reconciliations must take place. In some cases a chain of killings may follow a homicide, but in others the threats do not materialise, and after a number of years social relations return to normal. People did not normally speak of wrongs done in past generations. It does not follow that they were not remembered, but if they were I am sure they would