arch. [ad. Pg. bolsa = Sp. bolsa, It. borsa:—med.L. bursa a purse. Cf. BURSE.] A package of diamonds or gold-dust.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4499/4. There was brought from India, in the Ship Albemarle … Three Bulses of Diamonds.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 283. Amongst other things, was a bulse of gold dust.
1787. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode upon Ode, Wks. 1812, I. 409. And tweak’d a Bulse of Jewels from the nose Of Dames in India.
1813. W. Milburn, Orient. Commerce, II. 79. These gems [diamonds] are generally imported … in small parcels called bulses, neatly secured in muslin, and sealed by the merchant.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. xviii. 137. All who could help or hurt at Court … were kept in good humour by presents of … bulses of diamonds and bags of guineas.
