a measure of length, containing more or fewer geometrical paces, according to the different usages and customs of countries. A league at sea, where it is chiefly used by us, being a land-measure mostly peculiar to the French and Germans, contains 3000 geometrical paces, or three English miles. The French league sometimes contains the same measure, and in some parts of France it consists of 3500 paces: the mean or common league consists of 2400 paces, and the little league of 2000. The Spanish leagues are larger than the French, 17 Spanish leagues making a degree, or 20 French leagues, or 69½ English statute-miles. The Dutch and German leagues contain each four geographical miles. The Persian leagues are pretty near of the same extent with the Spanish; that is, they are equal to four Italian miles: which is pretty near to what Herodotus calls the length of the Persian parasang, which contained 30 stadia, eight whereof, according to Strabo, make a mile. The word comes from leuka, or leuga, an ancient Gaulish word for an itinerary measure, and retained in that sense by the Romans. Some derive the word leuka from λευκός, "white;" as the Gauls, in imitation of the Romans, marked the spaces and distances of their roads with white stones.