Two men stood out in Sakaltutan; Haci Ömer (D) and Haci Osman (H). They were openly on good terms, and had been companions on the journey to Mecca in the autumn of I949. But they very seldom visited each other. I had the impression that in 1950 Haci Ömer was more accepted as village leaded than Haci Osman, but he was a sick man. He did not normally give definite orders, although on one occasion, in the absence of the headman and against his wishes, he ordered the watchman to make a public announcement about the government distribution of seed.
Haci Osman was a fitter and wealthier man. He wisely made a point of saying that he was a man of peace, and was always gentle and pious as became a pilgrim to Mecca, a genuine Haci
He cultivated a collection of sisters' sons. He had two in the Upper quarter who had been away from the village for a Iong period, one for a year and the other for four years. He made the long journey to Izmir in person to find them and bring then back. Three other sisters' sons lived in the Lower quarter. When one of them lost his wife Haci Osman helped financially and personally in the attempts to find a replacement. When he was one of a syndicate which organised the building of diesel mill in the village, this man and his younger brother were employed first as building labourers; later as millhand and mechanic. Haci Osman's sister's daughter's husband was Ömer (G). Ömer and his six sons, three of them grown up, were on excellent terms with him and called him dayi, (mother' brother). In the winter of 1949-50 most of these sisters' sons went not to his guest room but to Nureddin's (K) in the Lower quarter. Although technically they all had rights to some of the land on which his wealth and influence was based, none of them showed any signs of raising this embarrassing subject publicly.
Plenty of people in the village belonged to neither following. Several men were more or less their equals in standing, and others were prepared to befriend both sides. They were not