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Overview

Crane summarizes a separate Sicilian magician narrative after the Venetian Devil Husband. Ohimè commands his wives to consume human remains and questions the bones about their whereabouts. He kills the first two sisters when their discarded bones betray them. The youngest, Maruzza, invokes her dead mother’s spirit and follows its advice to burn the assigned arm, powder it and bind it against her body. The remains then answer that they are in her body, satisfying the magician. She discovers ointments able to restore the dead, revives a murdered prince to hear his history and kills him again to conceal the discovery.

Ohimè claims that he cannot be killed but discloses a plant which, placed in his ears, sends him into an apparently endless sleep. Maruzza uses it, revives the prince and escapes to marry him. Years later the plant withers and falls away. Ohimè awakens and conceals himself inside a musical silver statue sent to their palace. Emerging at night, he prepares to kill Maruzza in boiling oil. A sleep-inducing flask rolls from the king’s bed, allowing the king to awaken, rescue her and throw the magician into the oil instead. Crane notes the contradiction between Ohimè’s claim of invulnerability and this fatal ending. This is Crane’s condensed comparative account, not a claim to have read Gonzenbach’s complete original tale.

Questioning human remainsRestorative ointmentSleep through herb placed in earsHides inside silver statue
01

Origins & earliest records

Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), Comparative summary following XVI, pp. 81–83; selected source: Laura Gonzenbach, no. 23, The Story of Ohimè.

02

Records & interpretation

The located account describes disguise, punishment, magical tests and the eventual escape. The Venetian complete tale and the separately labelled Sicilian comparative summary are distinct witnesses.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Italian Popular Tales: Comparative summary following XVI, pp. 81–83

    Thomas Frederick Crane; source: Laura Gonzenbach, no. 23, The Story of Ohimè · 1885

    Crane’s complete published summary, explicitly distinguished from the uncollated Gonzenbach original.

Family & connections

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary textCrane 1885: Comparative summary following XVI, pp. 81–83Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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