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> Like a ray-fish, eating while walking. The ray-fish does not stop swimming while chewing food it has gathered while weaving along the ocean floor. The saying may be applied to any rude behavior or particularly to the act of walking and eating, which is considered impolite. It can also be applied to a person who is trying to hurry through a job without giving it careful attention. |
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> They are as though eating deldalech. Deldalech is the material once used to blacken teeth in Palau. When the deldalech was applied it was "eaten" by keeping the mouth and lips completely immobile for several hours until the dye had set. May be applied to a meeting at which some problem is presented for discussion and no discussion takes place, all the participants sitting in stony silence; also to a person or group that receives a reprimand in silence. |
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> He's like the road in Ngerebodel (which doesn't go anywhere in particular) i.e. he's expanding a lot of effort but not getting anywhere. There was once, in the hamlet of Ngerebodl (in Koror, central Palau), reputedly a very fine boulder path which began and ended nowhere in particular. The idiom may describe a person who seems to be working hard toward no apparent objective |
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> You're a flying kite, but i hold the guide string. No matter how much you play around, you always come back to me. |
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> He's like the rabbit fish in Ngetmeduch, which jumps into the net (seemingly) of its own will. i.e. He always drops by without having been invited. At one point in their life cycle the meas, a tasty, black reef fish, school close to the surface in the shallow lagoon near Ngetmeduch (Koror) and may be easily caught with the derau, a two-part net consisting of two scoop nets, one held in each hand (hence sometimes "butterfly net"). The idiom is applied to a person who habitually appears without invitation at parties or feasts. |
