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> It's like the way they eat in Ngeraus (where food is scarce): as soon as they get to like or enjoy the food, it's gone. Just as something becomes popular, it becomes unavailable. Ngerraus is a small village in Ngchesar (central Palau). The idiom suggests a person who begins to feel hungry just as the food runs out. The reference is to the meager food resources of a small village. In contemporary Palau the idiom may be applied to some popular import that soon disappears from the shelves of the stores. |
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> Like the honey bee, celebrating without first boiling down the coconut syrup. Once coconut syrup, dripping from the cut flower stem, is collected it is thickened
by boiling. The honeybee, however, collects his nectar, puts it in the hive without boiling
it, then proceeds to fly around noisily as though celebrating the completed task.
Hence, to talk or boast loudly about successes and accomplishments when one has none;
to make plans but never carry them out; to celebrate without cause. |
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> Like a person somewhere taking a bath, but I'm cold. Applies to any embarrassing act, such as boasting or gossiping, on the part of a friend. |
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> A person whose breechcloth is loose. A poorly organized man, naive, openminded, generous, but not manly. |
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> Puffed out like a puffer fish. A boastful person is like a puffer fish, full of air and not edible, hence not worthy of note. |
