A common motif on ceramics from the Nicoya region is the fight between a masked human figure and a jaguar. This is probably the battle between the god Mixcoatl and the jaguar. Mixcoatl, the cloud serpent, was the patron deity of the Otomi, Chichimecs and some Central Mexican peoples who traced themselves back to the Chichimecs. Eduard Seler surmised that the jaguar represented darkness. Mixcoatl, on the other hand, is associated with the morning star, so that the depiction probably represents the victory of day over night. The Aztecs replaced Mixcoatl in his function as hunter and warrior with Huitzilipochtli A.Nicklisch 2003