It is said that early Tamil settlers called the islands Malaitivu, which means Garland Islands or Chain Islands. According to regional lore, Giraavaru fishermen used to go regularly to a certain large sandbank (''finolhu'') at the southern end of their atoll to clean tuna fish after a good catch. Owing to the large amount of tuna fish offal and blood, the waters around that sandbank looked like a big pool of blood ("maa ley gandeh": "maa" (from the Sanskrit मह "maha", meaning ''big'', and "lē" ''blood''). Traditionally the first inhabitants of the Maldives, which include the Giravaru people, didn't have kings. They lived in a simple society and were ruled by local headmen.