diff --git a/runtime/syntax/mason.vim b/runtime/syntax/mason.vim
index 40bdb0e..6789e11 100644
--- a/runtime/syntax/mason.vim
+++ b/runtime/syntax/mason.vim
@@ -13,12 +13,8 @@
 "  - Fix <%text> blocks to show HTML tags but ignore Mason tags.
 "
 
-" Clear previous syntax settings unless this is v6 or above, in which case just
-" exit without doing anything.
-"
-if version < 600
-	syn clear
-elseif exists("b:current_syntax")
+" quit when a syntax file was already loaded
+if exists("b:current_syntax")
 	finish
 endif
 
@@ -30,22 +26,14 @@
 
 " First pull in the HTML syntax.
 "
-if version < 600
-	so <sfile>:p:h/html.vim
-else
-	runtime! syntax/html.vim
-	unlet b:current_syntax
-endif
+runtime! syntax/html.vim
+unlet b:current_syntax
 
 syn cluster htmlPreproc add=@masonTop
 
 " Now pull in the Perl syntax.
 "
-if version < 600
-	syn include @perlTop <sfile>:p:h/perl.vim
-else
-	syn include @perlTop syntax/perl.vim
-endif
+syn include @perlTop syntax/perl.vim
 
 " It's hard to reduce down to the correct sub-set of Perl to highlight in some
 " of these cases so I've taken the safe option of just using perlTop in all of
@@ -78,19 +66,7 @@
 
 " Set up default highlighting. Almost all of this is done in the included
 " syntax files.
-"
-if version >= 508 || !exists("did_mason_syn_inits")
-	if version < 508
-		let did_mason_syn_inits = 1
-		com -nargs=+ HiLink hi link <args>
-	else
-		com -nargs=+ HiLink hi def link <args>
-	endif
-
-	HiLink masonDoc Comment
-
-	delc HiLink
-endif
+hi def link masonDoc Comment
 
 let b:current_syntax = "mason"