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(chiefly India) A groom, or servant with responsibility for the horses.
1808, Thomas Williamson, Oriental Field Sports; being a Complete, Detailed, and Accurate Description of the Wild Sports of the East In Two Volumes, volume II, London: Printed by W Bulmer and Co. Cleveland-Row, St. James's; for Edward Orme, Bond-Street, the corner of Brook-Street, and B. Crosby and Co. Stationers' Court, →OCLC, page 213:
Not one of them [horse dealers] will venture a horse, he is about to sell, in the stables of the intended purchaser, unless attended by one of his own syces, or grooms, who both knows and is known by the animal. If the horse be very old, or naturally dull, the syce takes care to ply him with spices and other stimulants; and if vicious, opium, and other anodynes are given; so that the horse is absolutely in a state of disguise.
1849 April 19, “General Return of Casualties in the Army of the Punjaub in the Action at Goojerat on the 21st February 1849, between the British Forces under the Personal Command of General the Right Hon. Hugh Baron Gough, G.C.B., Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in India, and the Rebel Army under the Sirdar Chuttur Singh and Rajah Shere Singh”, in The Indian News, and Chronicle of Eastern Affairs, number 160, London, →OCLC, page 179:
Then all trace of him was lost, until a sais met me on Simla Mall with this extraordinary note:— […]
1890, Flora Annie Webster Steel; Grace Gardiner, “The Duties of the Servants”, in The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook: Giving the Duties of Mistress and Servants, the General Management of the House and Practical Recipes for Cooking in all its Branches, Edinburgh: F. Murray, OCLC228145908; reprinted Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 978-1-108-02193-7, page 68:
THE DUTIES OF THE SAIS OR GROOM. Now, if the good house-mother's proudest boast is that not even "the cattle within her gate" fail to feel her kindly care, she will often find it necessary to take an active part in teaching the sais his duty, and seeing that the horses receive proper attention. The old plan of a sais and a grass-cutter to each horse is a thing of the past, and the number of saises or grooms should have reference merely to the amount of harnessing and out-work necessary during the day.
1906, Charles A Sherring, “Superstitions”, in Western Tibet and the British Borderland; the Sacred Country of Hindus and Buddhists, with an Account of the Government, Religion, and Customs of its Peoples, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC, page 100:
But apart from the story of the havildar, my own syce, a hillman who attends my pony, has actually seen two ghosts, with one of whom he held a long conversation.
Dinner, dinner, dinner … but when he returned to the house for it, Mahmoud Ali had drifted away in his turn, to speak to his sais.
1974, Apa Pant, “Dreams and Destinations”, in A Moment in Time, Bombay: Orient Longman, →OCLC, page 76:
The horse also, as if it had its own premonitions, refused to get on to those rickety planks, though the rest of the party had negotiated them safely. The sais (horse attendant), who had no such anxieties, crossed ahead of us and struggled for some minutes to drag the poor frightened animal, with myself on its back, across the chasm.
What is this wonderful job you have, to throw away your education for? Instructor is it? You're a syce in a stableyard! Is this all you care for all that I've done for you?
Each pony had his sais, his groom, who lived and ate and slept with the animal, and had betted a good deal more than he could afford on the result of the game. There was no chance of anything going wrong, but to make sure, each sais was shampooing the legs of his pony to the last minute. Behind the saises sat as many of the Skidars' regiment as had leave to attend the match […]
1935, Ralph Lionel German, Handbook to British Malaya, 1935, : [R. L. German]: Obtainable from the Malay Information Agency, Waterlow and Sons, →OCLC, page 50:
House servants are usually either Chinese or Tamil, the former predominating, especially in towns of any size. The domestic staff will in general consist of a houseboy (in large establishments two houseboys), a water carrier (tukang ayer), whose duties include washing dishes and preparing baths, a cook, a gardener, a chauffeur or sais, and perhaps an ayah (if Chinese, amah) or two, according to the size of the family.
fter their first few days there he had hired a syce, a Malay chauffeur. The syce, who had been squatting down, sheltering in the shade of the car, jumped to his feet at their approach, opening the doors for them with an efficient flourish.
1994, Laurence C Bergquist, Destiny: A Southeast Asia Saga, 1928–1953: Singapore, Malaya, Indonesia, Pacifica, Calif.: Pacifica Press, →ISBN, page 51:
Each establishment had a retinue of Chinese or Malay servants, on average consisting of a cook, one or two "house boys," a tukang kebun (gardener), a sais (chauffeur), and an ayah or amah (maid or nurse) to take care of ironing […]
1999, Mary Sydney Burke, The Soldier's Wife: Peace and War, London: Janus Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 128:
The lady – a very elegant Romanian by birth – arrived with her daughter Miriam, the English governess, the secretary, a detective, and last of all the syce, or chauffeur, who seated himself in the garden rather than wait in the large Rolls-Royce parked outside, with the family crest placed above the number plate.
he expansion of the service economy, for the home, the office and the municipality, had created a more mixed labouring world. A wealthy European or Asian home would bring together a Chinese amah, or maid, a Malay syce, or chauffeur, and an Indian kebun, or gardener, operating through a Malay lingua franca. On a larger scale, in the invisible city, ethnic communities were pushed closer together, often for the first time.
'Yes,' sais I, 'what's left of me; but, good gracious,' sais I, 'you have got the 'heaves.' I hope it ain't catchin'.
2000, Frederic Remington, “Sun-Down Leflare's Warm Spot”, in John D. Seelye, editor, Stories of the Old West: Tales of the Mining Camp, Cavalry Troop, & Cattle Ranch, Norman, Ok.: University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 203:
Well, he tak some young man un he go off to Alsaroke to steal horse, un I seet roun' un watch dat woman. She watch me. Pretty soon camp was hunt de buffalo, un I was hunt Snow-Owl's woman. Every one was excite, un dey don' tak no 'count of me. I see de woman go up leetle coulie for stray horse, un I follar her. I sais, 'How do? You come be my woman. We run off to Meestar MacDonnail's tradehouse.' […] She sais she afraid.
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