SUVA, Fiji — Tucked inside a dark shopping plaza in this otherwise enchanting city in the South Pacific is Henry’s Pawn Shop. Inside, Joseph Baivatu, 29, prepares to make the next payment on a layaway for something very special: a large sperm whale tooth. Known as a tabua in Fiji, a sperm whale’s tooth is often given by a groom and his family to the parents of the man’s (hopefully) future bride when he asks permission to marry her.

“The whole of my life I want to be married, so I give my goods and my time,” said Mr. Baivatu, a Vodafone technician in Suva, Fiji’s capital and largest city. “I give the tabua, and that means ‘I love you’ from the inside.”

Mr. Baivatu, who is as soft-spoken as he is tall and broad shouldered, said he had yet to meet the future Mrs. Baivatu, but that detail does not get in the way. He is determined to be ready with tabuas when she turns up.

Tabua (pronounced tam-BOO-ah) roughly translates to “sacred” in Fijian. The valuable relic, associated with good luck and even supernatural powers, has traditionally paved the way for marriages in this nation of more than 300 islands.