¹ In my Fairy—Faith in Celtic Countries (Oxford, 1911), Chapter X, I have suggested how very probable it is that the purgatorial lore which centred about the cavern for mystic pagan initiations formerly existing on an island in Loch Derg, Ireland, at what is now the famous place of Catholic pilgrimage called St. Patrick’s Purgatory, gave rise to the doctrine of Purgatory in the Roman Church. The original purgatorial cavern was demolished, by order of the English Government in Ireland, to destroy, as was said, pagan superstition.
Furthermore, the subterranean places of worship and initiation, dedicated to the Sun—God Mithras, still preserved as ancient remains throughout the Southern European countries, bear such close resemblance to the original Irish Purgatory— as to other underground places of initiation in Celtic countries like New Grange in Irelnnd and Gavrinis in Bnttany——as to indicate a common prehistoric origin, essentially religious and connected with a cult of the Bardo—woñá and its inhabitants.

² Cf. The Gazetteer of Sikhim, ed. by H. H. Risley, p. 269.