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> It's like the birth of a rat with one offspring per mother. It's something that happens just once, something I put up with only once. According to this saying, the rat bears but one litter. Hence the application "once is enough" about an act that bears no repeating. |
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> You're like a fish bait which can be eaten or pecked from the top and bottom. You don't know what to do because chores keep coming in from left and right. |
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> Like the buttock of Titechingai. He rushes crazily from one task to another. Titechingai had a disease which left his buttock covered with old sores and pock marks. Therefore, when Titechingai called on a young woman at night, he always left the house before it became light in order to avoid being seen. Once, however, when he awoke it was already light and he was observed to dash from bush to bush in his desperate attempt to run through the village with minimum exposure. A person who seems to be rushing madly about in the conduct of several tasks may be compared with Titechingai. |
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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 green tree snake with a forked tongue (or simply, "Forked"). One who reverses himself, has two tongues, or whose tongue is forked like a snake. |
