than forty finely decorated pyramids, large residential areas, and six major canals which acted as transport routes along which the inhabitants traveled by canoes. Family life was important to the Aztecs. When babies were born, a midwife assisted the delivery. Midwives were highly regarded professionals. As Aztec women married when they were as young as fifteen the first birth was often to a teenage girl of a young age. The midwife would cut the umbilical cord, wash the baby, and then offer a prayer to Chalchiuhtlicue ["Jade-Her-Skirt"]. Baby boys were told that life was difficult and full of suffering and that they were likely to die in battle or as sacrifices. The umbilical cord of boys was given to warriors to be buried on the battlefields. Boys were educated at home by their fathers until they were about ten when they started school. The umbilical cord of a girl was buried next to the hearth. The domestic role was seen as the most important part of a woman's life. The women generally stayed within the home and cooked and made clothing. When girl babies were born the assisting midwife told them that they were to the house as the heart was to the body. Girls stayed in the home with their mothers and began their "training" when they were four. By the age of twelve they were accomplished weavers. The women dressed in wraparound skirts and sleeveless blouses. Women often colored their faces in a pale yellow ochre powder to enhance their attractiveness. A man could have one main wife but a number of secondary wives. It was important to Aztec women, like women everywhere, to be thought to be beautiful. Mature, married Aztec women typically wore their hair in two horn-like tufts while younger women often wore it straight and long sometimes down to the waist. Like the Egyptians cleanliness was valued as was a pleasant scent. Women used to wear garlands of pleasant smelling flowers around their necks. Aztec women were not to put red on their ...
