Also 7 vise, vyse, 8 vis. [ad. Tamil vīsai. Cf. It. byza, Pg. biça, in 16th-c. writers.] A weight used in Southern India and Burmah equal to about 31/2 lbs.
[1588. T. Hickock, trans. C. Frederick’s Voy., 32 b. This Ganza goeth by weight of Byze … and commonly a Byza of a Ganza is worth … halfe a ducket.]
1626. Methold, in Purchas, Pilgrimage (ed. 4), 1003. His peremptory demand of a Vyse of the fairest Diamonds.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 87. The annual Tribute i. e. three pound weight being a Vise of the fairest Stones or Diamonds.
1766. T. Brooks, Coins E. Indies, 7. 40 Pollams weight is equal to 1 Vis, or 31/2 lb. Avoirdupoise. Ibid., 11. 4 Putas is 1 Viss.
1800. Misc. Tr., in Asiat. Ann. Reg., 319/2. From the wells the oil is carried in small jars, by cooleys,… to the river; where it is delivered to the merchant exporter at 2 tecals per hundred viss.
1829. Crawfurd, Jrnl. Emb. to Crt. of Ava (1834), II. 203. The King [of Burma] lays claim to all [stones] that exceed in value a viss of silver, or one hundred ticals.
1876. J. Anderson, Mandalay to Momien, 336. In 1872, no less than one hundred and fifty thousand viss of royal cotton were stored at Manwyne.
