One hundred years of solitude
Many
years
later
as
he
faced
the
firing
squad
,
Colonel
Aureliano
Buendfa
was
to
remember
that
distant
afternoon
when
his
father
took
him
to
discover
ice
.
At
that
time
Macondo
was
a
village
of
twenty
adobe
houses
,
built
on
the
bank
of
a
river
of
clear
water
that
ran
along
a
bed
of
polished
stones
,
which
were
white
and
enormous
,
like
prehistoric
eggs
.
The
world
was
so
recent
that
many
things
lacked
names
,
and
in
order
to
indicate
them
it
was
necessary
to
point
.
Every
year
during
the
month
of
March
a
family
of
ragged
gypsies
would
set
up
their
tents
near
the
village
,
and
with
a
great
uproar
of
pipes
and
kettledrums
they
would
display
new
inventions
.
First
they
brought
the
magnet
.
A
heavy
gypsy
with
an
untamed
beard
and
sparrow
hands
,
who
introduced
himself
as
Melqufades
,
put
on
a
bold
public
demonstration
of
what
he
himself
called
the
eighth
wonder
of
the
learned
al-chemists
of
Macedonia
.
He
went
from
house
to
house
dragging
two
metal
ingots
and
everybody
was
amazed
to
see
pots
,
pans
,
tongs
,
and
braziers
tumble
down
from
their
places
and
beams
creak
from
the
desperation
of
nails
and
screws
trying
to
emerge
,
and
even
objects
that
had
been
lost
for
a
long
time
appeared
from
where
they
had
been
searched
for
most
and
went
dragging
along
in
turbulent
confusion
behind
Melqufades
'
magical
irons
.
"
Things
have
a
life
of
their
own
,
"
the
gypsy
proclaimed
with
a
harsh
accent
.
"
It
's
simply
a
matter
of
waking
up
their
souls
.
"
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
,
whose
unbridled
imagination
always
went
beyond
the
genius
of
nature
and
even
beyond
miracles
and
magic
,
thought
that
it
would
be
possible
to
make
use
of
that
useless
invention
to
extract
gold
from
the
bowels
of
the
earth
.
Melqufades
,
who
was
an
honest
man
,
warned
him
:
"
It
wo
n't
work
for
that
.
"
But
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
at
that
time
did
not
believe
in
the
honesty
of
gypsies
,
so
he
traded
his
mule
and
a
pair
of
goats
for
the
two
magnetized
ingots
.
Orsula
Iguaran
,
his
wife
,
who
relied
on
those
animals
to
increase
their
poor
domestic
holdings
,
was
unable
to
dissuade
him
.
"
Very
soon
well
have
gold
enough
and
more
to
pave
the
floors
of
the
house
,
"
her
husband
replied
.
For
several
months
he
worked
hard
to
demonstrate
the
truth
of
his
idea
.
He
explored
every
inch
of
the
region
,
even
the
riverbed
,
dragging
the
two
iron
ingots
along
and
reciting
Melqufades
'
incantation
aloud
.
The
only
thing
he
succeeded
in
doing
was
to
unearth
a
suit
of
fifteenth-century
armor
which
had
all
of
its
pieces
soldered
together
with
rust
and
inside
of
which
there
was
the
hollow
resonance
of
an
enormous
stone-filled
gourd
.
When
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
and
the
four
men
of
his
expedition
managed
to
take
the
armor
apart
,
they
found
inside
a
calcified
skeleton
with
a
copper
locket
containing
a
woman
's
hair
around
its
neck
.
In
March
the
gypsies
returned
.
This
time
they
brought
a
telescope
and
a
magnifying
glass
the
size
of
a
drum
,
which
they
exhibited
as
the
latest
discovery
of
the
Jews
of
Amsterdam
.
They
placed
a
gypsy
woman
at
one
end
of
the
village
and
set
up
the
telescope
at
the
entrance
to
the
tent
.
For
the
price
of
five
reales
,
people
could
look
into
the
telescope
and
see
the
gypsy
woman
an
arm
's
length
away
.
"
Science
has
eliminated
distance
,
"
Melqufades
proclaimed
.
"
In
a
short
time
,
man
will
be
able
to
see
what
is
happening
in
any
place
in
the
world
without
leaving
his
own
house
.
"
A
burning
noonday
sun
brought
out
a
startling
demonstration
with
the
gigantic
magnifying
glass
:
they
put
a
pile
of
dry
hay
in
the
middle
of
the
street
and
set
it
on
fire
by
concentrating
the
sun
's
rays
.
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
,
who
had
still
not
been
consoled
for
the
failure
of
big
magnets
,
conceived
the
idea
of
using
that
invention
as
a
weapon
of
war
.
Again
Melqufades
tried
to
dissuade
him
,
but
he
finally
accepted
the
two
magnetized
ingots
and
three
colonial
coins
in
exchange
for
the
magnifying
glass
.
Orsula
wept
in
consternation
.
That
money
was
from
a
chest
of
gold
coins
that
her
father
had
put
together
ova
an
entire
life
of
privation
and
that
she
had
buried
underneath
her
bed
in
hopes
of
a
proper
occasion
to
make
use
of
it
.
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
made
no
attempt
to
console
her
,
completely
absorbed
in
his
tactical
experiments
with
the
abnegation
of
a
scientist
and
even
at
the
risk
of
his
own
life
.
In
an
attempt
to
show
the
effects
of
the
glass
on
enemy
troops
,
he
exposed
himself
to
the
concentration
of
the
sun
's
rays
and
suffered
burns
which
turned
into
sores
that
took
a
long
time
to
heal
.
Over
the
protests
of
his
wife
,
who
was
alarmed
at
such
a
dangerous
invention
,
at
one
point
he
was
ready
to
set
the
house
on
fire
.
He
would
spend
hours
on
end
in
his
room
,
calculating
the
strategic
possibilities
of
his
novel
weapon
until
he
succeeded
in
putting
together
a
manual
of
startling
instructional
clarity
and
an
irresistible
power
of
conviction
.
He
sent
it
to
the
government
,
accompanied
by
numerous
descriptions
of
his
experiments
and
several
pages
of
explanatory
sketches
;
by
a
messenger
who
crossed
the
mountains
,
got
lost
in
measureless
swamps
,
forded
stormy
rivers
,
and
was
on
the
point
of
perishing
under
the
lash
of
despair
,
plague
,
and
wild
beasts
until
he
found
a
route
that
joined
the
one
used
by
the
mules
that
carried
the
mail
.
In
spite
of
the
fact
that
a
trip
to
the
capital
was
little
less
than
impossible
at
that
time
,
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
promised
to
undertake
it
as
soon
as
the
government
ordered
him
to
so
that
he
could
put
on
some
practical
demonstrations
of
his
invention
for
the
military
authorities
and
could
train
them
himself
in
the
complicated
art
of
solar
war
.
For
several
years
he
waited
for
an
answer
.
Finally
,
tired
of
waiting
,
he
bemoaned
to
Melqufades
the
failure
of
his
project
and
the
gypsy
then
gave
him
a
convincing
proof
of
his
honesty
:
he
gave
him
back
the
doubloons
in
exchange
for
the
magnifying
glass
,
and
he
left
him
in
addition
some
Portuguese
maps
and
several
instruments
of
navigation
.
In
his
own
handwriting
he
set
down
a
concise
synthesis
of
the
studies
by
Monk
Hermann
.
which
he
left
Jose
Arcadio
so
that
he
would
be
able
to
make
use
of
the
astrolabe
,
the
compass
,
and
the
sextant
.
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
spent
the
long
months
of
the
rainy
season
shut
up
in
a
small
room
that
he
had
built
in
the
rear
of
the
house
so
that
no
one
would
disturb
his
experiments
.
Having
completely
abandoned
his
domestic
obligations
,
he
spent
entire
nights
in
the
courtyard
watching
the
course
of
the
stars
and
he
almost
contracted
sunstroke
from
trying
to
establish
an
exact
method
to
ascertain
noon
.
When
he
became
an
expert
in
the
use
and
manipulation
of
his
instruments
,
he
conceived
a
notion
of
space
that
allowed
him
to
navigate
across
unknown
seas
,
to
visit
uninhabited
territories
,
and
to
establish
relations
with
splendid
beings
without
having
to
leave
his
study
.
That
was
the
period
in
which
he
acquired
the
habit
of
talking
to
himself
,
of
walking
through
the
house
without
paying
attention
to
anyone
,
as
Orsula
and
the
children
broke
their
backs
in
the
garden
,
growing
banana
and
caladium
,
cassava
and
yams
,
ahuyama
roots
and
eggplants
.
Suddenly
,
with-out
warning
,
his
feverish
activity
was
interrupted
and
was
replaced
by
a
kind
of
fascination
.
He
spent
several
days
as
if
he
were
bewitched
,
softly
repeating
to
himself
a
string
of
fearful
conjectures
without
giving
credit
to
his
own
understanding
.
Finally
,
one
Tuesday
in
December
,
at
lunchtime
,
all
at
once
he
released
the
whole
weight
of
his
torment
.
The
children
would
remember
for
the
rest
of
their
lives
the
august
solemnity
with
which
their
father
,
devastated
by
his
prolonged
vigil
and
by
the
wrath
of
his
imagination
,
revealed
his
discovery
to
them
:
"
The
earth
is
round
,
like
an
orange
.
"
Orsula
lost
her
patience
.
"
If
you
have
to
go
crazy
,
please
go
crazy
all
by
yourself
!
"
she
shouted
.
"
But
do
n't
try
to
put
your
gypsy
ideas
into
the
heads
of
the
children
.
"
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
,
impassive
,
did
not
let
himself
be
frightened
by
the
desperation
of
his
wife
,
who
,
in
a
seizure
of
rage
,
mashed
the
astrolabe
against
the
floor
.
He
built
another
one
,
he
gathered
the
men
of
the
village
in
his
little
room
,
and
he
demonstrated
to
them
,
with
theories
that
none
of
them
could
understand
,
the
possibility
of
returning
to
where
one
had
set
out
by
consistently
sailing
east
.
The
whole
village
was
convinced
that
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
had
lost
his
reason
,
when
Melqufades
returned
to
set
things
straight
.
He
gave
public
praise
to
the
intelligence
of
a
man
who
from
pure
astronomical
speculation
had
evolved
a
theory
that
had
already
been
proved
in
practice
,
although
unknown
in
Macondo
until
then
,
and
as
a
proof
of
his
admiration
he
made
him
a
gift
that
was
to
have
a
profound
influence
on
the
future
of
the
village
:
the
laboratory
of
an
alchemist
.
By
then
Melqufades
had
aged
with
surprising
rapidity
.
On
his
first
trips
he
seemed
to
be
the
same
age
as
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
.
But
while
the
latter
had
preserved
his
extraordinary
strength
,
which
permitted
him
to
pull
down
a
horse
by
grabbing
its
ears
,
the
gypsy
seemed
to
have
been
worn
dowse
by
some
tenacious
illness
.
It
was
,
in
reality
,
the
result
of
multiple
and
rare
diseases
contracted
on
his
innumerable
trips
around
the
world
.
According
to
what
he
himself
said
as
he
spoke
to
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
while
helping
him
set
up
the
laboratory
,
death
followed
him
everywhere
,
sniffing
at
the
cuffs
of
his
pants
,
but
never
deciding
to
give
him
the
final
clutch
of
its
claws
.
He
was
a
fugitive
from
all
the
plagues
and
catastrophes
that
had
ever
lashed
mankind
.
He
had
survived
pellagra
in
Persia
,
scurvy
inthe
Malayan
archipelago
,
leprosy
in
Alexandria
,
beriberi
in
Japan
,
bubonic
plague
in
Madagascar
,
an
earthquake
in
Sicily
,
and
a
disastrous
shipwreck
in
the
Strait
of
Magel-lan
.
That
prodigious
creature
,
said
to
possess
the
keys
of
Nostradamus
,
was
a
gloomy
man
,
enveloped
in
a
sad
aura
,
with
an
Asiatic
look
that
seemed
to
know
what
there
was
on
the
other
side
of
things
.
He
wore
a
large
black
hat
that
looked
like
a
raven
with
widespread
wings
,
and
a
velvet
vest
across
which
the
patina
of
the
centuries
had
skated
.
But
in
spite
of
his
immense
wisdom
and
his
mysterious
breadth
,
he
had
a
human
burden
,
an
earthly
condition
that
kept
him
involved
in
the
small
problems
of
daily
life
.
He
would
complain
of
the
ailments
of
old
age
,
he
suffered
from
the
most
insignificant
economic
difficulties
,
and
he
had
stopped
laughing
a
long
time
back
because
scurvy
had
made
his
teeth
drop
out
.
On
that
suffocating
noontime
when
the
gypsy
revealed
his
secrets
,
Jose
Arcadio
Buendfa
had
the
certainty
that
it
was
the
beginning
of
a
great
friendship
.
The
children
were
startled
by
his
fantastic
stories
.
Aureliano
,
who
could
not
have
been
more
than
five
at
the
time
,
would
remember
him
for
the
rest
of
his
life
as
he
saw
him
that
afternoon
,
sitting
against
the
metallic
and
quivering
light
from
the
window
,
lighting
up
with
his
deep
organ
voice
the
darkest
reaches
of
the
imagination
,
while
down
over
his
temples
there
flowed
the
grease
that
was
being
melted
by
the
heat
.
Jose
Arcadio
,
his
older
brother
,
would
pass
on
that
wonderful
image
as
a
hereditary
memory
to
all
of
his
descendants
.
Orsula
on
the
other
hand
,
held
a
bad
memory
of
that
visit
,
for
she
had
entered
the
room
just
as
Melqufades
had
carelessly
broken
a
flask
of
bichloride
of
mercury
.
"
It
's
the
smell
of
the
devil
,
"
she
said
.
"
Not
at
all
,
"
Melqufades
corrected
her
.
"
It
has
been
proven
that
the
devil
has
sulphuric
properties
and
this
is
just
a
little
corrosive
sublimate
.
"
Always
didactic
,
he
went
into
a
learned
exposition
of
the
diabolical
properties
of
cinnabar
,
but
Orsula
paid
no
attention
to
him
,
although
she
took
the
children
off
to
pray
.
That
biting
odor
would
stay
forever
in
her
mind
linked
to
the
memory
of
Melqufades
.
