Brewer's: Fountain of Death

In Jerusalem Delivered, the hermit tells Charles and Ubald of a fountain, the sight of which excites thirst, but those who taste its water die with laughter.

Pomponius Mela speaks of a fountain in the Fortunate Islands, “ Qui potavere risu solvuntur in mortem.” Petrarch alludes to the same.

These fountains symbolise the pleasures of sin.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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