PILARTERNERA'S son was brought to his grandparents' house two weeks after he was born.

Úrsula admitted him grudgingly,conquered once more by the obstinacy of her husband, who could not tolerate the idea that an offshoot of his blood should be adrift,but he imposed the condition that the child should never know his true identity.

Although he was given the name José Arcadio, they ended upcalling him simply Arcadio so as to avoid confusion.

At that time there was so much activity in the town and so much bustle in the house that the care of the children was relegated to a secondary level.

They were put in the care of Visitación, a Guajiro Indian woman who had arrived in town with a brother in flight from a plague of insomnia that had been scourging their tribe for several years.

Theywere both so docile and willing to help that Úrsula took them on to help her with her household chores.

That was how Arcadio and Amaranta came to speak the Guajiro language before Spanish,and they learned to drink lizard broth and eat spider eggs without Úrsula's knowing it,for she was too busy with a promising business in candy animals.

Macondo had changed.

The people who had come with Úrsulaspread the news of the good quality of its soil and its privileged position with respect to the swamp,so that from the narrow village of past times it changed into an active town with stores and workshops and a permanent commercial route over which the first Arabs arrived with their baggy pants and rings in their ears,swapping glass beads for macaws.

José Arcadio Buendía did not have a moment'srest.