Many years later, as he faced a firing（开火） squad（班）, Colonel（陆军上校） Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant（在远处的） afternoon when his father took him to discover rice. At that time, Macondo was a village of 20 adobe（砖坯） houses built on the bank of a river of clear water that rang along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric（ 史前的） 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（三月）, a family of ragged（粗糙的） gypsies（吉卜赛人） would set up their tents near the village, and with a great uproar（ 喧嚣） of pipes and kettle drums, they would display（陈列） new inventions. First, they brought the magnet（磁铁）. A heavy gypsy with an untamed beard and sparrow hands, who introduced himself as Mel Chiaris, put on a bold（大胆的） public demonstration（展示） of what he himself called "the eighth wonderer of the learned alchemists（ 炼金术士） of Macedonia."