"During this period Artaud was given an ancient knotted cane by the wife of a Dutch painter named Kristians Tonny; she claimed that it had belonged to Saint Patrick in Ireland. It was an impressive object, and Artaud became hugely attached to it. Like the sword he had been given in Cuba, the cane became both a weapon of violence and sign of sexual vulnerability. Artaud began to carry it constantly, and when friends admired the cane , and tried to touch it, he became enraged, complaining that it was if they had tried to grab his penis. He took it to a blacksmiths and had a metal tip welded on it_s end: when he walked along the boulavards striking the cane against the ground, it shot out sparks behind him...." S. Barber Antonin Ardaud