gift from Reverend Langham. The black dog, possibly the first canine recorded in the hills, was a status symbol for the chief. Ratu Meli died during the measles epidemic that ravished Fiji and indeed the hill tribes from January to June 1875. Tui Colo was buried alive with his fallen master in his grave mound at Navunitavola-Navaulele. A probable Christian compromise to heathen burial rites where in former times, the high chief's wives would have been strangled to accompany him to the underworld. On Ratu Meli Davetanivalu II's demise, his elder brother Ratu Manasa Davetanivalu and younger brother Ratu Viliame Batiratu and uncle Rovucago's descendants according to chiefly succession tradition have held the title Taukei ni Waluvu. Sir Arthur Gordon Fiji's first substantive Governor in establishing colonial rule from 1875 to 1878, had originally created 12 Provinces headed by Roko Tui's and two hill Provinces on Viti Levu- Colo East and Colo West headed by respective Governor's Commissioners. In 1893 another Commissionership, Colo North was created from these two Colo Provinces and from areas of Ra, Ba and the Yasawa group. History and ethnology According to Adolf Brewster,(see Joske's Thumb), Commissioner Colo East 1884–90, and elaborated by Arthur Capell, the genealogies of the hill tribes tend to go back some eleven or twelve generations from the time of his research. Basil Thomson and Brewster had worked on a basis of thirty years to a generation. So granting it, the founder seems to in each case to have lived about AD 1600. The Taukei ni Waluvu clan trace their ancestry to Rokowai who founded their tokatoka Natabutale lineage at Nakamarusi around 1600 AD. Rokowai's ancestry through his father, the high chief of Navunidakua is traced back to Robonowai, the son with mystical powers of Ranadi ni Namasia the daughter of the Tui Nalawa in Ra. Clan folklore tells that Rokowai, who was the insolent and audacious youngest son in the chiefly household, had to flee the village as his brothers led by Nayacakuru had hatched a plot to harm him. The young chief fled with members of the chiefly clan's bati, sauturaga, matanivanua and bete who were loyal to him. Their descendants still reside with the Taukei ni Waluvu in Nairukuruku and its older stronghold sister village Taulevu. The Taukei ni Waluvu as head of Yavusa Siko includes the mataqalis: Siko Natabutale (Nairukuruku), Siko Navunisalusalu of Taulevu village (Matailobau District), Siko