[c. 1817.—"... the bearers, with their Sirdaur, have a large room with a verandah before it."—Mrs. Sherwood, Last Days of Boosy, 63.]
1826.—"Gopee's father had been a Sirdar of some consequence."—Pandurang Hari, 174; [ed. 1873, i. 252].
SIRDRÁRS, s. This is the name which native valets ([bearer]) give to common drawers (underclothing). A friend (Gen. R. Maclagan, R.E.) has suggested the origin, which is doubtless "short drawers" in contradistinction to [Long-drawers], or [Pyjamas] (qq.v.). A common bearer's pronunciation is sirdrāj; as a chest of drawers is also called 'Drāj kā almairā' (see [ALMYRA]).
SIRKY, s. Hind. sirkī. A kind of unplatted matting formed by laying the fine cylindrical culms from the upper part of the Saccharum sara, Roxb. (see [SURKUNDA]) side by side, and binding them in single or double layers. This is used to lay under the thatch of a house, to cover carts and palankins, to make [Chicks] (q.v.) and table-mats, and for many other purposes of rural and domestic economy.
1810.—"It is perhaps singular that I should have seen seerky in use among a group of gypsies in Essex. In India these itinerants, whose habits and characters correspond with this intolerable species of banditti, invariably shelter themselves under seerky."—Williamson, V.M. ii. 490.
[1832.—"... neat little huts of sirrakee, a reed or grass, resembling bright straw."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations, i. 23.]
SIRRIS, s. Hind. siris, Skt. shirisha, shri, 'to break,' from the brittleness of its branches; the tree Acacia Lebbek, Benth., indigenous in S. India, the Sātpura range, Bengal, and the sub-Himālayan tract; cultivated in Egypt and elsewhere. A closely kindred sp., A. Julibrissin, Boivin, affords a specimen of scientific 'Hobson-Jobson'; the specific name is a corruption of Gulāb-reshm, 'silk-flower.'
1808.—"Quelques anneés après le mort de Dariyaî, des charpentiers ayant abattu un arbre de Seris, qui croissoit auprès de son tombeau, le coupèrent en plusieurs pièces pour l'employer à des constructions. Tout-à-coup une voix terrible se fit entendre, la terre se mit à trembler et le tronc de cet arbre se releva de lui-même. Les ouvriers épouvantés s'enfuirent, et l'arbre ne tarda pas à reverdir."—Afsōs, Arāyish-i-Mahfil, quoted by Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus. 88.
[c. 1890.—
"An' it fell when sirris-shaws were sere,