José Arcadio,the older of the children,was fourteen.

He had a square head,thick hair,and his father's character.

Although he had the same impulse for growth and physical strength,it was early evident that he lacked imagination.

He had been conceived and born during the difficult crossing of the mountains,before the founding of Macondo,and his parents gave thanks to heaven when they saw he had no animal features.

Aureliano,the first human being to be born in Macondo,would be six years old in March.

He was silent and withdrawn.

He had wept in his mother's womb and had been born with his eyes open.

As they were cuttingthe umbilical cord,he moved his head from side to side,taking in the things in the room and examining the faces of the people with a fearless curiosity.

Then,indifferent to those who came close to look at him, he kept his attention concentrated on the palm roof,which looked as if it were about to collapse under the tremendous pressure of the rain.

Úrsula did not remember the intensity ofthat look again until one day when little Aureliano, at the age of three,went into the kitchen at the moment she was taking a pot of boiling soup from the stove and putting it on the table.