The Guardians of the Covenant

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A number of attempts have been made by Ethiopia to get the tabots returned but the museum argues it is forbidden by the British Museum Act of 1963 to restitute objects in its collection.

Jacob married Laban’s two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Leah had six sons and one daughter before Rachel had any children of her own. Like her forebears, Sarah and Rebekah, Rachel waited many long years before she was blessed with a child. “Give me children, or else I die” (Gen. 30:1) was her cry. “And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.” (Gen. 30:22.) The result was Joseph. He went to the Church of Mary of Zion with a couple of soldiers," Parfitt said. He spoke to the monks in the church in Amharic, a language widely spoken in Ethiopia, asking to see the ark. His requests were refused. "They said, 'You can't go in, this is holy…'" said Parfitt, recounting the story. "He said, 'Well, I'm sorry, but I want to go in,'" and "he did go in with his soldiers behind him. They couldn't do anything to stop him," Parfitt said.

On my last night in Aksum, I walked down the chapel road, now deserted, and sat for a long time staring at the chapel, which shone like silver in the moonlight. Mortikah VII is also one of the only sources in the Imperium of psycho-sensitive minerals that accentuate the use of certain psyker powers. The existence of these resources are a closely guarded secret, and the small scale exploitation of them is undertaken under the supervision of the Scholastica Psykana. Even the Guardians are uncertain as to all of the uses that the minerals potentially possess, but the Chapter’s Librarium do use locally sourced materials in the construction of its psychic hoods and other psyker tools. But in looking at the past through a wide lens, the book papers over problematic practices of the time – the child bride effortlessly warms to her husband 30 years her senior, high-caste and low-caste live together as family, colonial masters and subjects are nothing but friends, the revolutionary regrets his uprising, and independence erases all ills of colonialism (“It’s all Indian now, whatever its origins. The only white faces around belong to scruffy tourists”). This Chapter is known for its exceptionally monastic character. True warrior-monks of the Emperor, they have penned several tomes that have been added to the Lore of the Lion over the millennia. This attention to the wise words of these and numerous other important figures carries over into more areas of the Chapter's identity, as many of the Chapter's brethren are masters of the calligraphic arts. We've had 1,000 years of Judaism, followed by 2,000 years of Christianity, and that's why our religion is rooted in the Old Testament," he told me. "We follow the same dietary laws as Judaism, as set out in Leviticus," meaning that his followers keep kosher, even though they are Christians. "Parents circumcise their baby boys as a religious duty, we often give Old Testament names to our boys and many villagers in the countryside still hold Saturday sacred as the Sabbath."

The teachings Moses had received from his mother during the few short years she was employed as his nurse were so engrained in his consciousness that he could not forget that there was only one true God, who had covenanted with his people, Israel, that they would be a special people unto him—instruments of his power. And all the learning Moses received at the hands of his Egyptian tutors was as naught compared with this truth. It might well be said that Jochebed was the true deliverer of Israel, for she taught Moses, without which there would have been no deliverance.

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The next day I tried again, led by a friendly priest to the gate of the ark chapel, which is about the size of a typical suburban house and surrounded by a high iron fence. "Wait here," he said, and he climbed the steps leading to the chapel entrance, where he called out softly to the guardian. The Timkat celebrations were to continue for three more days with prayers and masses, after which the tabots would be returned to the churches where they were kept. I was more eager than ever to locate the original ark, so I headed for Aksum, about 200 miles northeast.