Note 141 — IV. The Graphic Elements.

Variants of the chuen are extremely frequent in the mural inscriptions, and its correct interpretation, therefore, highly important. As stated in the text, I believe they generally stand for chun, which means “the foundation, the beginning, the first, the cause.” We find such expressions as tu chun che, “at the foot of the tree;” tu chun uitz, “at the base of the hill,” etc. In Tzental, chu is the teat or mamma, chunel, to suck the teat. In many inscriptions the position of the chun is antithetic to the pax, the one indicating the beginning, the other the end of a series.