were interested in his discovery: The Nazi Ahnenerbe ("Ancestral Heritage Society"), founded by Heinrich Himmler in 1935 with the aim of supporting the theories put forth by the notorious Thule Society, had already secured paranormal objects like the Spear of Longinus--also known as the Spear of Destiny--in 1938, and a year earlier had started to send out worldwide expeditions in search of Noah's Ark, Atlantis, and bizarre medicines used by South American natives. It was only a matter of time before these twisted forces had fixed their predatory gaze on the Baton of Command. To their aid came then-colonel Juan Domingo Perón--Argentina's future dictator. Perón spent the late 1930's as a military observer in Italy and Germany and was also fascinated by the occult.

Orfelio Ulises and a numberof "hermetic scholars" managed to conceal the periapt from the Nazis and keep in Argentina, where it remained under Ulises' care until his death, and then passed on to Professor Guillermo Terrera in 1948. It is currently in the custody of Dr. Fernando Fluguerto Martí and his Delphos Group.

Also in 1948, Baron Georg Von Hauenschild, an archaeologist and Grail scholar, prepared an exhaustive report on the Baton of Command for the Institute of Archaeology, Linguistics and Folklore of the University of Cordoba, showing that the object's estimated age was indeed 8000 years and of clearly neolithic manufacture. Great care was taken by prehistoric craftsmen in polishing the object, rounding off its base and tapering its head into a soft conical shape. The volcanic basalt that it is made