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Curious Customs and Beliefs in Modern: Melissa

There is a European plant, variously called Melia, Melissa, Melittis, Melianthus and Honey-blossom, though probably it is Melissa Officinalis or our common Bee Balm, which was formerly believed to have the power of drawing bees to the hive where it was placed.

It is noteworthy that in Germany the plant believed to entice bees to the hive is also called Mutterkraut (mother herb) and is considered healing to mothers.

There is another curiously suggestive superstition connected with this plant, which is that he who carries it with him can lead cattle wherever he wishes.

The nymphs, as we know, and sometimes the muses, had their origin in bees, - whence in latter times came the legend that good and industrious women also had their origin in bees, and certain names of women are still in vogue whose original significance may have been derived from the legend.

Melissa, as a name for women, no doubt had originally the meaning belonging to the word in Greek mythology, though few of the Melissas of to-day suspect the significant and complimentary character of their name as used by the Greeks of antiquity.

In French we have Mélisse and Mélite, modifications of Melissa.

Curious Customs and Beliefs Deborah, too, as we remember, in Hebrew means bee, or "she that speaketh" - not as a nymph this time, but as a prophetess. We still retain the name of Deborah, but it is no longer significant of prophecy.

Although the prophets of our day are popularly represented as having "a bee in the bonnet" this by no means implies that we consider them possessed of the divine frenzy of the ancient seers!

As in the Eastern world so in the Western, we find many cities showing by their names the importance of their bees, as Immendorf, Immenstadt, Immenhausen, Immenstaed, Immenstedt, Immendingen, Immnitz, etc., from Imme a bee, and in Texas there is a town called Beeville.