Chapter Meistersingers to Melusines of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Melusina The most famous of the fées of France. Having enclosed her father in a high mountain for offending her mother, she was condemned to become every Saturday a serpent from her waist downward. When she married Raymond, Count of Lusignan, she made her husband vow never to visit her on a Saturday; but, the jealousy of the count being excited, he hid himself on one of the forbidden days, and saw his wife's transformation. Melusina was now obliged to quit her mortal husband, and was destined to wander about as a spectre till the day of doom. Some say the count immured her in the dungeon of his castle. (See Undine .)
   Cri de Mélusine. A sudden scream; in allusion to the scream of despair uttered by the fairy when she discovered the indiscreet visit of her beloved husband. (See above.)

Melusines (3 syl.). Gingerbread cakes bearing the impress of a beautiful woman “bien coiffée,” with a serpent's tail; made by confectioners for the May fair in the neighbourhood of Lusignan, near Poitiers. The allusion is to the transformation of the fairy Melusina every Saturday. (See above.)