The Malabar Vettuvans are said to have a fantastic legend, showing that they were not originally as low as they are at the present day in the social scale. "It is related that one of their tribe went and asked a high-caste Nayar to give him a daughter in marriage. The Nayar offered to do so on condition that the whole tribe would come to his place and dance on berries, each one who fell to be shot with arrows. The tribe foolishly agreed to the condition, and went and danced, with the result that, as each one tripped and fell, he or she was mercilessly shot dead with arrows. A little girl who survived this treatment was secretly rescued, and taken away by a compassionate Nayar, who married her into his family. From this union, the present day Vettuvans affirm their origin is to be traced. Up to this day they hold the caste of that particular Nayar in very great veneration." [149] The costume of these Vettuvans has been described as follows. [150] "The men wear a short loin-cloth, secured round the waist by a belt which is also used as a sling during hunting expeditions. They also wear brass ear-rings, and grow a bit of moustache, and a little stumpy beard. The dress of the women consists of three clusters of long leaves, suspended from the waist and tied on by a cheap girdle. According to a tribal legend, when, in the morning of time, costumes were being distributed by the deity to the various races of the earth, the Vettuva women, being asked to choose between a costume which needed to be changed daily, and one which needed to be changed only yearly, readily expressed a preference for the former, and the deity, considering this an unpardonable piece of vanity, decreed that thenceforth the women should dress in leaves gathered fresh every morning. Whenever it is suggested to them that they should adopt some more lasting apparel, the Vettuva women answer that they are carrying out the mandate of the deity, and can abandon their present dress only if the deity appears in person, and sanctions a change." On the occasion of a recent visit of the Governor of Madras to South Canara, a party of Vettuvans was paraded before him. One of the men was wearing an aluminium coronation medal, and, on being asked by the Collector who had given it to him, he folded his arms obsequiously, and replied 'My Tamburan' (landlord). In a recent note on the leaf-wearing Vettuvans, it is stated that "they believe that the sun travels, after it has set, through a hole in the bowels of the earth, and emerges at morning in the east. The way they calculate time is interesting. A Vettuvan says that his children were born when his master sowed paddy (rice) on such and such hills. They are a very truthful lot, of good moral character, the chastity of their womankind being held very sacred."