. Men and women, hearing
of the cannibalism raging among the refugees, adopted and refined it for
their own amusement. Small promiscuous groups, at the end of orgies,
chose the man and woman tiring soonest; the two victims were thereupon
killed and devoured by their late paramours.

As there was a cult to Priapus, so there was an equally strong cult to
Diana. The monasteries and convents overflowed. But in the tension of
the moment many were not satisfied with mere vows of celibacy. In secret
and impressive ceremonies women scarified their tenderest parts with
redhot irons, thus proving themselves forever beyond the lusts of the
flesh; men solemnly castrated themselves and threw the symbols of their
manhood into a consuming fire.

I wouldnt want to give the impression bestial madness of one kind or
another overtook everyone. There were plenty of normal people like
myself who were able to maintain their selfcontrol and canalize those
energies promoting crimes and beastly exhibitions in the unrestrained
into looking forward to the day when the Grass would be gone and sanity
return.

Nor would I like anyone to think law and order had completely abdicated
its function. As offenses multiplied, laws grew more severe,
misdemeanors became felonies, felonies capital offenses. When death by
hanging became the prescribed sentence for any type of theft it was
necessary to make the punishment for murder more drastic. Drawing and
quartering were reinstituted; this not proving an efficient deterrent,
many jurists advocated a return to the Roman practice of spreadeagling a
man to death; but the churches vigorously objected to this suggestion as
blasphemous, believing the ordinary sight of crucified murderers would
tend to debase the central symbol of Christianity. A less common Roman
usage was adopted in its stead, that of being torn by hungry dogs, and
to this the Christians did not object.

But the utmost severity of local and national officials, even when
backed by the might of World Government, could not cope with the waves
of migrants from the East nor the heedlessness of law they brought with
them. As the Grass pushed the Indians and Chinese westward, they in turn
sent the Mongols, the Afghans and the Persians ahead of them. These
naturally warlike peoples were displaced, not by force of arms, but by
sheer weight of numbers; and so, doubly overcome by being dispossessed
of their homes--and by pacifists at that--they vented th