The educated Scumites had a few advantages in methods of war, but with
all this they were not able to withstand the vast hordes that swept down
upon them. Brute force won the battle and the accumulated light of four
thousand years flickered until it was no more.

It was a fatal day for Scum when its mad inhabitants blew out the last
of the candles that had promised to give them light.

When this sad and blighting victory was accomplished, these uncivilized
tribes rejoiced more hilariously than at one time our Indians rejoiced
when celebrating their victories in the wild scalp dances.

Thus the dark shadows fell on this huge world. The captured educated
classes made a heroic effort to continue their cultured manners and
religious life, but the prejudice against them and their ways was so
great that they were compelled to live in the lower strata or suffer the
pain of death. In process of time, the wild woods flourished where once
the temples of science and pure religion reared their imposing pillars.

What can we expect of such a race of people who have drifted from the
light of civilization for so long a period? As I looked at their customs
and their ways, I was reminded of a garden that has run wild. Here and
there I could see traces of the once thrifty life now almost choked out
by the overpowering crop of weeds.

Gradually the people became worse and worse. Sin played havoc and built
carnal fires around which these children of men gathered. Sensuality
became the ruling passion and, in less than five hundred years of our
time, the last family observance had died away and these creatures