"I pass over the preliminary installation of the chief as Tui Nayau at Nayau Island, though its significance will be taken into account. The ensuing investiture of the Tui Nayau as paramount of Lau consciously follows the legend of an original odyssey, which brought the ancestral holder of the title into power at Lakeba, ruling island of the Lau Group.

The chief thus makes his appearance at Lakeba from the sea, as a stranger to the land. Disembarking at the capital village of Tubou, he is led first to the chiefly house (vale levu) and next day to the central ceremonial ground (raaraa) of the island.

At both stages of this progression, the pretender is led along a path of barkcloth by local chieftains of the land. In Lau, this barkcloth is prescriptively a type considered foreign by origin, Tongan barkcloth.

Later, at the kava ceremony constituting the main ritual of investiture, a native chieftain will bind a piece of white Fijian tapa about the paramount's arm.

The sequence of barkcloths, together with the sequence of movements to the central ceremonial ground, recapitulate the correlated legendary passages of Tui Nayau from foreign to domestic, sea to land, and periphery to center.

The Fijian barkcloth that in the end captures the chief represents his capture of the land: upon installation, he is said to hold the 'barkcloth of the land' (masi ni vanua).

The barkcloth thus has deeper significance. In general ritual usage, barkcloth serves as 'the path of the god'. Hanging from the rafters at the rear, sacred end of the ancient temple, it is the avenue by which the god descends to enter the priest."

"There is still more to the barkcloth. The barkcloth which provides access for the god/chief and signifies his sovereignity is the preeminent feminine valuable (i yau) in Fiji.

It is the highest product of woman's labor, and as such a principal good of ceremonial exchange (soolevu). The chief's accession is mediated by the object that saliently signifies women."

(Islands of History)