midnight
The filthy Dnieper , contaminated by the reeking sewerage of the city , was in a great measure to blame for the rapid spread of the disorder , but to have advanced such a theory would have been useless ; the ignorant inhabitants ascribed the scourge to any source but the true one . At one time the _ feldshers _ were accused of having propagated the plague for their own pecuniary benefit , and the excited populace 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 .