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.

Actually, much of “Mistero Buffo” doesn't require translation and indeed is untranslatable: Mr. Fo speaks in “grammelot,” a kind of polyglot gabble speckled with an occasional intelligible word.

Alas, so it is everywhere, so it will ever be; till the Hod[-]man is discharged, or reduced to hodbearing; and an Architect is hired, and on all hands fitly encouraged:[…]]

We read the contract with a view to how it could be made to appeal to voters.