Phasellus imperdiet sem non arcu iaculis vitae tempor tellus condimentum. Suspendisse a libero et urna tincidunt auctor. Maecenas non urna a orci feugiat suscipit sed sit amet erat. Sed nibh lacus, molestie et tempor eu, hendrerit viverra tortor. Aenean tempus, urna in euismod ullamcorper, leo metus elementum lacus.

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia 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 prehis­ toric 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 aqd 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 Melquiades, put on a bold public demonstration of what he himself called the eighth wonder of the learned alchemists of Macedonia.