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> Like the mud fish of the Bngei lagoon, drawn to the passing wind The reef fish mud seldom leaves a given rock or cleft in the reef, but according to this saying the mud of Bngei lagoon, near Airai, may be attracted away from their locus by the dust raised by a passing school of fish. The latter portion of this proverb is difficult to translate. The word melecheb may be applied to a person drawn forward by a current of water. Rrengor refers to a movement of air caused by one body passing another. The idiom is applied to a changeable person, a faddist, or a joiner |
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> Like Ngiramesemong, rehashing what has been finished. Pertains to a person who repeatedly reminds another of past favors or continually recalls the mistakes of others. (My sources no longer recalled the episode or story from which this idiom derives.) |
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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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> Like the name of the bai at Chol: "Empty." A bai in the northern community of Chol is (or once was) called Medederiik, meaning "deserted" or "empty." The idiom may apply to a person without possessions, a poor man. |
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> Like the man who made coconut syrup in Ngesebei, dipping from half-filled containers to keep one overflowing. Pertains to a situation which may have occurred in Ngesebei, a small hamlet in Ngardmau (northern Palau): a coconutsyrup specialist always kept one coconutshell container full and in sight of guests, who, thus, would think that all of his containers were full. The idiom applies to any pointed display of opulence. It's a deceptive display of wealth. |
