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> Like the kingfisher, chattering while taking to wing. The kingfisher, a restless, bullying bluebird, may be heard to chatter loudly when flying up from the ground or from a perch. The saying applies to one who suddenly spouts instructions to a group, then leaves, or to a leader at a meeting who impatiently interrupts a discussion with a burst of pronouncements, then ends the meeting. |
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> Like lightning, a big, unnecessary noise. Lightning rarely strikes in such a way as to cause serious damage in Palau. May be applied to any unnecessary fuss or oratory at a meeting. |
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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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> It's like eating reboiled (starchy) food. Cooked taro will spoil in time, unless it is reboiled (blelekl). Among other applications the saying may pertain to a man who marries, separates, then returns to the same woman; also a man who returns to a former job. |
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> It's like the birth of a rat with one offspring per mother. It's something that happens just once, something I put up with only once. According to this saying, the rat bears but one litter. Hence the application "once is enough" about an act that bears no repeating. |
