As mentioned before, in one of the Tepeaca Range peaks, west of the Tepeyacac settlement, a seating feline is shown. This image is very similar to the feline which appears inside the cave cited above. As to the relation between animals and caves in MC2, Keiko Yoneda states that --unlike the more stylized representations in the other Cuauhtinchan maps-- caves in MC2 (except for Chicomoztoc's):

"are found in a more naturalistic way...Such difference in form is partially due to each map's degree of stylistic Westernization...in MC2 the style is more westernized...In the Cuauhtinchan maps, the cave glyph does not seem to be related to the [Chichimec] genealogy. It rather appears as some animal's lair [and] perhaps the caves related to animals in the Cuauhtinchan maps imply the Tlalocan concept...where the Earthly gods live and animals of all species, which are deemed children of these gods, roam freely. Here food never lacks1".

For our study case, a proof of this is given by a small clay figure found during the excavation works of the Acatzingo-Tepeaca Project on the northern slope of the Tepeyacac hill (site PAT 130). This figure represents the open fauces of the monster of the Earth (the cave symbol) inside which there is the face of a personage with protruding eyes, large round ear discs, and a round element or chalchihuite --symbol of water and all that is precious, rich, and beautiful-- in his mouth2. This image in its whole may be interpreted as the representation of one of the deities related to Tlaloc or fertility inside a cave. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the Tlayhtic cave representation in MC1 has a large stylistic resemblance to the clay figure.

Small clay figure (2 cm) found at the northern slope, of Tepeyacac hill, which represents a personage related to Tlaloc inside a cave, symbolized by the open fauces of the Monster of the Earth (Photograph:Miguel Medina Jaen)	Stylized representation of the Tlayhtic cave in MC1, symbolized by the open fauces of the Monster of the Earth(Yoneda, 1991:112.)

The Tlayhtic cave is shown in MC1 as the open fauces of the Monster of the Earth or a monster with feline features and an animal inside, which may be identified with a feline --by comparison with the same glyph in MC2-- but since this animal in MC1 seems not to have a tail and its ears are longer, it rather looks like a rabbit. The relation of the rabbit to the cave may be given by the symbolic value of both elements with fertility and the Tlaloc cult. The rabbit is specially associated with the moon, which is in turn associated with Tlaloc, as is described in the following myths on the Nahuas origin:

"In the thirteenth year after the second count of thirteen --which is year 26 after the flood-- and since it was agreed by the Gods to make Sun and they had made the war to feed him, Quetzalcoatl wanted his son to be Sun, that who had him as a father and none as a mother, and also wanted that Tlalocatecutli, God of Water, turned the son of his and Chalchiuhtlicue's --his wife-- into Moon...Quetzalcoatl grabbed his son and threw him into a big fire, and out he came turned into Sun...And after the fire was dead,there came the Tlalocatecutli and threw his son into ash, and out he came turned into Moon, and that is why it looks ashy and dark.3

"And after the creation of the Fifth Sun in Teotihuacan, before the Moon appeared, when that who was thrown into fire and came out as the Sun, another was entered in a cave and came out Moon." 4

"The fable of the rabbit in the Moon is this: They say the Gods mocked the Moon and slapped her face with a rabbit, and the rabbit remained marked on her face, and this way they darkened her face with a bruise. After this, she comes out to light up the world." 5

Rabbit-shaped representation of the Moon on plate 71 of the Borgia Codex (Báez-Jorge, 1988: 373).

On the other hand, the relation between animals and caves has to do with Tlaloc's paradise or Tlalocan, which was inside the mountains and led into the mountain caves6. López-Austin, after surveying a considerable amount of historic and ethnographic references corresponding to the terrestrial and water deities of the Mesoamerican religious tradition, infers that:

"Inside the hill, enormous farming, animal, mineral riches and water currents are hoarded. The caves are the main points of communication with this world [Tlalocan] and departure places of winds and clouds."7. "From Tlalocan comes the energy of things mundane; from there all seeds are sent. There, as tiny beings, are the men and animals who shall be born.".8

According to the same author, the Tlalocan was the heart of the Earth for the Mesoamerican indigenous people, but at the same time, the Tlalocan had a symbolic heart represented by the image of deity Tepeyolotl or "Heart of the Hill", where all divine essences which flowed into Tlalocan were concentrated.9. Tepeyolotl had the wild animals among his children and servants, and was frequently represented as a jaguar in the indigenous pictographic codices.10. Therefore, at least for the post-Classic period, the jaguar was related to the interior of the Earth. It was the "heart of the hill" or the cave.11. From long before at places as Chalcatzingo or Izapa, the cave was already represented as the open mouth of a monster with jaguar features and large fangs, as shown in the MC1 image.

Cave symbolized by the open fauces of a monster with feline features in Chalcatzingo, Morelos. Pre-Classic period (Heyden, 1985: 61).	Two feline profiles which make a similar shape to the mouth of the Earth or cave, Teotihuacan, Classic period (ibidem: 80).
Cave of Chicomoztoc in the Duran Codex,represented as the open fauces of an animal with feline features, out of which a Chichimeca group comes in the post-Classic Period (Schavelzon,1980: 158).	Tepeyollotli, "Heart of Hill", as an anthropomorphic god inside the pelt of a jaguar. Post-Classic Period (López-Austin,1995: 186).

Oztoman	Tepetlaoztoc
Oztoticpac	Tzinacanoztoc
Oztotlapechco	Xaloztoc
Chicomoztoc
Diverse indigenous representations of the cave glyph, symbolized by the fauces of the Earthly monster with features of felines and snakes (Heyden, op. cit.: 76).