Thirty-nine men were skilled building trade operatives. Plasterers predominated, I was told, because this was the easiest skill to pick up. The first plasterer in Sakaltutan, Hasan (V), had learned his trade ten years before from a friend, and had then taught his kin, and thus the skill had spread through the village. Almost all the plasterers were young men and recent recruits to the trade.
Labour for building is apparently recruited by a hierarchical system of contracting and subcontracting, so that there are often several levels between the contractor who undertakes to build a building and the workman who puts the bricks and plaster together. Thus, finding regular work depends on establishing and maintaining contacts with people in the next level above oneself. At least two men in Sakaltutan were one level up from the bottom in this system; they took on large amounts of work from contractors and then subcontracted part of it to their friends. A position at this level gave a man much greater continuity of work, higher profit, and the power to dispense employment to his neighbours and friends.
The ordinary skilled men also worked on contract. They claimed to be able to earn from T.L.7 to T.L.12 a day (17s. 6d. to £l 10s., $2.40 to $4.20); the standard answer was T.L.10.