Pai is one of the two spirit-women, with Vau, who in Nanumean tradition occupied the sandbank of Nanumea before any human settlement. When the warrior Tefolaha arrived he wagered the island on a contest of names; the two women demanded that he leave unless he could name them, but he tricked them into calling out their own names and named them correctly while keeping his own hidden. Bound by the rule that to know a name is to hold power, Pai and Vau were forced to abandon Nanumea, and the sand that spilled from their baskets as they fled is said to have formed the small islets of Te Motu Foliki, Lafogaki and Teaafua a Taepoa.