In practice, Enver Hoxha, the Party leader, who came from the south and received the bulk of his support during World War II from that area, frequently gave preference to persons and customs of Tosk origin. In the late 1960s Party and government leaders continued to devote considerable effort to the suppression of customs and rituals that, they declared, were vestiges of the patriarchal, bourgeois, and religious systems of the past. On one occasion in 1968 the Party announced that because of its influence 450 infant betrothals were annulled and 1,000 girls renounced ancient customs, including the taboo against females leaving their village (see ch. 5, Social System). The Gegs, because of their greater isolation in the mountainous areas of the north, held on to their tribal organization and customs more tenaciously than the Tosks. As late as the 1920s approximately 20 percent of male deaths in some areas of northern Albania were attributed to blood feuds. Under the unwritten tribal codes, which included the regulation of feuds, any blow, as well as many offenses committed against women, called for blood. Permitting a girl who had been betrothed in infancy to marry another, for example, could cause a blood feud. The _besa_ (pledge to keep one's word as a solemn obligation) was used under various conditions and included pledges to postpone quarrels. A person who killed a fellow tribesman was commonly punished by his neighbors, who customarily burned his house and destroyed his property. As fugitives from their own communities, such persons were given assistance wherever they applied. A man who failed to carry out prescribed vengeance against a member of another tribe or that individual's relatives was subjected to intolerable ridicule. Insult was considered one of the highest forms of dishonor, and the upholding of one's honor was a first requirement for a Geg. On the other hand, if the individual carried out the required act of vengeance, he was in turn subject to extinction by the victim's relatives. Women were excluded from the feud and, when escorted by a male, he too was considered inviolable. In other respects, women's position in society generally was one of deprivation and subjugation (see ch. 5, Social System). The isolation from influences beyond his community and the constant struggle with nature tended to make the Geg an ascetic. Traditionally, his closest bonds were those of kinship, as a member of a clan. Obstinate and proud, the Geg proved himself, under the leadership of his compatriots, a ruthless and cruel fighter. Visitors from outside the clan were generally suspect, but every traveler was by custom accorded hospitality.