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> Like the chelechelui [fish]. The chelechelui fish reputedly resists rotting when cooked, remaining firm long after other fish would be soft and rotten. The saying implies mature persistence. |
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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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> A male child, though small, is yet like a small barracuda that braces against the flowing stream. The small barracuda (mersaod, a small ai) can be seen bracing, without apparent motion, against the stream, usually where fresh water flows into the lagoon, or where tide water runs off the reef, until suddenly it dashes into the stream to grab a small fish. Then it retreats once more to its place of watchfulness. This watchful, quiet, reserved, almost crafty approach to life is much admired, and parents will encourage their male children with this saying. |
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> Like the name of the community house at Ngerekabesang: "Buttressed." At Ngerekabesang in Koror (central Palau) there is a community house (bai) called Telkakl, which means "to buttress" or "to be buttressed." Some of the older bai in Palau were thus supported with beams from the ground to the eaves, and the implication has been added that a bai so supported must be very full of important possessions. This idiom is used of a person who is wealthy, or of one's self, meaning that one has cash on hand. |
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> Like the raid at Ulong, doing it in the evening Pertains to a battle between the people of the once-inhabited islands of Ulong and Ngemelis in which the leader of the Ngemelis forces successfully defeated those of Ulong by attacking in the evening with the setting sun directly at his back, blinding the Ulong forces. Application is to a meeting or task, which might better have been started earlier, postponed until evening |
