pulace threw a number of doctors out of the windows of a
hospital and otherwise maltreated the poor practitioners who fell into
their clutches.

In Kanief, the inhabitants, crazed with fear at the progress of the
plague, adopted an original and ingenious method to check it. At
midnight, according to a preconcerted plan, all the maidens of the
village met on the outskirts of the place and formed in picturesque
procession. At the head marched a girl bearing an icon of the Madonna,
gaudily painted and bedecked with jewels. Behind her came her
companions, dragging a rope to which was attached a plow. In this order
they made the circuit of the village, and it was confidently believed
that the cholera would disappear within the magical circle thus
described.[11]

Many and equally ingenious were the devices employed in Kief by the
ignorant peasants. A wonder-working icon was brought from St.
Petersburg, where, according to tradition, it had performed many
miracles. Yet the plague continued, fed by the ignorance and
intemperance of the people.

Surrounded by such dense superstition, it is not strange that the Jews,
too, should resort to absurd rites to rid themselves of the dreaded
guest. The poorer classes, living in the lower portions of the quarter,
were the chief sufferers. There, where a dozen half-starved wretches
were crowded into one small room, the plague was at its height. A
hundred souls had already succumbed and the list of victims was growing
daily. Alas! the misery of the stricken families! Deprived of medical
attendance, of drugs, of fresh air, there appeared little hope for the
denizens of the infected district.

The busiest man during these troublous times was Itzig Maier, the
beadle, whose acquaintance we have already made as the messenger sent by
Bensef to the _bal-shem_ at Tchernigof. The condition of Itzig and his
family had not improved since we last saw him. The little fortune which,
if gossip spoke truly, he had acquired by his adroit manoeuvring at
that time, had been dissipated; his family had grown larger and was a
constant drain upon his meagre resources, while his income appeared to
diminish as his expenses increased. Besides, Itzig had a daughter who
was now of a marriageable age, and he was obliged to toil and save to
provide a dowry. Beile was unattractive and uninteresting, and Itzig did
not conceal from himself the fact that without a dowry it might prove
difficult to bring her under the _