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> Like seaweed at Kosiil, out with the tide and in with the tide. Kosiil is a location in the lagoon where the seaweed can be seen to bend in and out with the tide. The idiom is applied to a leader who is too flexible and unreliable. In the short form (Kora char ra Kosiil) it may simply mean, "I'll go along with what you decide." |
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> A full basket was dropped in Ngeremeduu bay. From the folk tale about Obak era Kedesau on his way to a feast being given in honor of his wife by her adoptive father. While crossing Ngeremeduu Bay between Ngatpang and Ngeremlengui, Obak dropped a basket of Palauan money overboard. Despite this terrible loss, he still had the courage and sufficient cash to carry off his visit in high style. The saying may be used to reassure someone, following a loss, reminding them that Obak era Kedesau recovered from an even greater loss. |
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> I receive it and you ask for it? A man asks for and receives that which he needs from a second party. A third party, learning of this, asks the first party for it. Used as implied or generally about any unreasonable request |
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> Like the cockroach of Ngerdobotar, staying on till it became white. Presumably if a cockroach remains in the darkness for a long time, as one at Ngerdobotar (in Aimeliik) apparently did, it will turn white. Application pertains to a visitor who stays on and on, especially one who is not helpful in the household. Such behavior is not properly human; the person is somehow different, like a white cockroach. |
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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. |
