ABSTRACT
The exact determination of a person's neighbours is extremely difficult as a rule, because neighbourliness is not easily. defined. For example, neighbours borrow and lend things amongst themselves, varying from a spoonful of sugar to a car or a suit of clothes. However, the borrowing and lending of an article is no index of neighbourly feelings per se. Much depends on the nature of the article, because there are some things that one may borrow from almost anybody. A housewife may borrow a pint of milk from the woman next door without cultivating her friendshipindeed she may well consider her a most undesirable person to have as a neighbour. Similarly, people who own equipment which is scarce in the district or who are distinguished by unusual skills are visited by many who would otherwise never enter the house. In this category are the village schoolmaster, who is in constant demand for help in the completion of forms and documents too difficult for the average villager, the blacksmith who lends assorted pieces of equipment to almost everyone who asks, and the village housewife who possesses a secret cure for ear-ache.
