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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 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 Melquiades, put on a bold public demonstration of what he himself called the eighth wonder of the learned alchemists 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 energy, 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 a turbulent confusion Melquiades' magical irons. Jose Arcadio Buendia, 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. Melquiades, who was an honest man, warned him. "It won't work for that." But Jose Arcadio Buendia at that time did not believe him in the honesty of gypsies, so he traded his mule and a pair of goats for the two magnetized ingots. Ursula Iguaran, his wife, who relied on those animals to increase their poor domestic holdings, was unable to dissuade him. "Very soon we'll have gold enough to 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 Melquiades' incantation aloud. The only thing he succeeded in doing was to unearth a suit of fifteenth-century armour which had all of its pieces soldered together with rust and inside of which there was the hollowed resonance of an enormous stone-filled gourd. When Jose Arcadio Buendia and the four men of his expedition managed to take the armour 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, the gypsies introduced to the village their new invention that they called the "fireworks". This invention was supposed to determine the moods of their respected gods. If they lit the fireworks and they flew into the sky and exploded, it means that the gods were happy, and if it failed, the gods weren't happy. Firstly, a gypsy of a solid build by the name of Yakumo Koizumi prepared a public demonstration of his set of fireworks in the village during the day. The fireworks lit and exploded high in the air with some beautiful orange marks that remained in the sky for a few seconds. The villagers were amazed by the invention of the fireworks and their respect towards the gypsies, once again, increased. During times when it rained and lightning was around, the gypsies would prove the disappointment experienced by the gods by attempting to light up the fireworks. Although the real reason was the substance that caused the supposed "happy reaction" (current emotion of the gods) did not ignite was because the main ingredient gunpowder, was soaked by water. Jose Arcadio, convinced that this would make himself a fortune, traded all his crops and a horse to be taught how to create and use a set of fireworks. The gypsies kindly accepted his offer, offered him a quality set of fireworks and taught him how to set it up and light it. His wife was concerned at the legitimacy of these fireworks and the reliability as to whether they actually determine the emotions of the gods. "Don't worry Iguaran. This marvellous creation will give us a fortune. It's just a matter of time and knowing who will pay for these fascinating demonstrations. I'm sure a church full of Christians would be happy to hear about God's emotions to them." With the knowledge of creating and lighting a set of fireworks, Buendia set off to the city church, many miles away from the village. He talked to the pope of the church and the marvellous creation that he has come up with. The pope, gullible as he was accepted the lie and paid him a small fortune to determine the emotions of god once a day. Not more than a week later, the pope discovered the mechanisms within the fireworks and questioned Buendia. Jose confessed that he was told from the gypsies many miles away that these fireworks did indeed determine the emotions of the spirits in heaven. The pope, a much more educated man than Buendia himself understood the fireworks much more than Buendia did himself. The pope demanded that Buendia return him all the money that was given to him. Buendia, confused as he was, gave the pope back the money that he was paid with and ran for his life from the church back to the village.