A rich imaginative heritage lies behind Baum's fountain. There is a "forbidden fountain" in Welsh mythology, though instead of effecting drinkers' memories it expels them from fairyland, where it is located.W. Jenkyn Thomas, The Welsh Fairy Book, London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1907; Whitefish, MT, Kessinger Publishing, 2004; p. 62-3. The idea of forbidden drink is closely related to that of forbidden food, which occurs most famously in the "forbidden fruit" of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Book of Genesis, but in other contexts too.
