|
> It's like the rat of Ngerard, which eats up all your coconuts and (then) all of ours. It's a decision, plan etc. that will backfire. A pet rat owned by Mad, chief of Ngaraard, ate the coconuts of most of the chief's neighbors, then, still hungry, ate the chief's own coconuts. |
|
> He's like Ngerechebal Island, which is neither closer to Imeliik nor closer to Ngerekebesang. i.e. He's indecisive or not clearly taking sides. A person who is "on the fence," changeable and indecisive. The saying may also be applied to a partly westernized Palauan. |
|
> Like kaldos, putting medicine on a well place, rather than the injury. Kaldos is a medical treatment, said by some to have been learned from the Germans, in which medicine is applied to a parallel member of an injured part in a way that is supposed to transfer pain to an uninjured place. The idiom is applied to a decision or action that completely misses the point or problem. |
|
> Like the blow at Utaor, one stroke for all. A person or perhaps a club of the hamlet of Utaor (a hamlet of either Koror or Chol) offended a major village and, in consequence, the village retaliated by attacking the whole hamlet. The idiom applies to any general statement or punishment that might better be directed toward a particular group or individual |
|
> He's like Chelebesoi of Ngeriil, dead in a fishtrap not his own. A man named Chelebesoi (also the name of a fish) was robbing another man's fish trap when a head-hunting party came by and removed his head. He lost both his head and his reputation. The idiom may apply to one who gets hurt while trying to do someone else's job. |
