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> You're like a beetle that burns itself by flying into the fire. You're always getting yourself into trouble. |
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> Like a pigeon-seeing the danger, yet it flies from cover The pigeon sits quietly concealed until some threat appears, then it flies out, revealing itself. The idiom applies to a person who unnecessarily exposes himself to danger, leaves the house in the rain, or takes a boat out in a storm. |
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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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> Those of high family are like the seed pod of the bngaol tree, which falls with its leafy cap upright. The bngaol, a mangrove tree, bears a long pod which is sharply pointed on one end and has a leafy "cap" on the other. When it falls from the tree it generally lands standing in the mud with "cap" end up. Hence, the quality of being socially elite (meteet) is gained naturally at birth. One is born in good standing with a cap or insignia of high rank. It follows, then, that the elite need not display their high standing, everyone knows they are elite when they are born (and there is no other way to become elite). Going a step further, the elite may display proper humility and refer to a group including themselves as kid a remechebuul (we commoners). |
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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. |
