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> Without looking afield, it was cut down behind the house. From the folk tale concerning Mesubed Dingal, the inventor of the Palauan kite (see also No. 73). After his wife had been kidnapped, he constructed a kite using feathers from all the birds of Palau and he needed also wood from an Edebsungel tree to fashion the body of the bird-kite. After looking all over Palau and being on the point of giving up, he found the tree he needed behind his own house. The saying may be applied to anyone who does things the hard way, or who goes far afield to find something which is close at hand. |
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> 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. |
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> With persistence the village of Ngersuul was maintained When the men's clubs of Koror could not proceed as far as Melekeiok, a major village to the north that stood in political balance with Koror, the clubs would often stop over at Ngersuul and sack the small village. Yet the people of Ngersuul, over and over defeated, clung to their village and persisted through history. (Sometimes the village of Angaur is used, with a similar meaning, in place of Ngersuul.) The saying may be applied to the harried individual who is about to give up a task because of repeated failure. |
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> It's as if I've submerged my head into Mekaeb (the channel between Peleliu and Agaur). A term to describe a dish that is really salty. |
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> When the purple swamp hen appears, it brings remembrance There is a song (Oumachas) from which this saying derives: Once there was a young couple who made love in a secluded spot in the taro garden. While they were lying together a purple swamp hen darted out of the brush startling the couple. Eventually love cooled, but thereafter whenever the girl saw a purple swamp hen while she worked in the gardens, she recalled her lover. Hence any occurrence that brings back fond memories. |
