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.

Pompoʹnius Meʹla speaks of a fountain in the Fortunate Islands, “Qui potavēre risu solvuntur in mortem.” Petrarch alludes to the same.

These fountains symbolise the pleasures of sin.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.