Chulup Win and Sanihas

Overview

Chulup Win Herit lives on the bed of the great eastern water, reached through a passage at the edge of the land. He is slender and strong; the personage list associates him with a pointed rock. He says that he has not previously sought warfare, but now intends to avenge two followers killed in the earlier conflict. Reports blame Sehinom, although the narrator identifies Chir Chuma as the actual killer under his command.

Chulup and Sehinom repeatedly break into and are driven from each other’s battle lines. At sunset Sehinom notices Chulup’s tall, beautiful wife Sanihas and leads her away. Chulup recovers her through a sharp attack before the next sunrise. Sanihas is identified with daylight in the list and introduction. This female figure and Chulup’s wife are distinguished from the separately profiled male Sanihas Yupchi of other Curtin narratives.

While the armies fight again, Wai Karili abandons the battlefield and sets a net across the passage to Chulup’s ocean home. At the end of the exhausting struggle Chulup sends Sanihas home by another route and enters the trapped passage himself. Wai Karili catches him, carries him to Tehi Buli east of Bohem Puyuk, kills him and pounds his body fine. Sanihas is not said to die with him. Curtin compares the couple with Aurora and Tithonos, but that classical parallel is the collector’s interpretation, not part of the Wintu plot.

Origins & earliest records

Wintu narrative Norwan in Jeremiah Curtin’s 1898 collection. His provenance describes California collecting; no individual teller is named for this chapter. These are first-world personages, not a description of living Wintu people.

Records & interpretation

Complete Norwan introduction, personage list and narrative pp. 69–117, through the final returning armies and subsequent metamorphoses, read alongside the complete interpretive note pp. 497–503. Curtin’s solar theory and comparisons with Greek and Algonquian traditions are his interpretations.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Creation Myths of Primitive America in Relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind

   Jeremiah Curtin · 1898

   Norwan, complete pp. 69–117; selected profile passages 94–104; interpretive note497–503; collection provenance486–487.

Family, evolution & connections

References

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

1. Primary textCurtin1898: Norwan, complete Wintu war cycleResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.