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> A male child, though small, is yet like a small barracuda that braces against the flowing stream. The small barracuda (mersaod, a small ai) can be seen bracing, without apparent motion, against the stream, usually where fresh water flows into the lagoon, or where tide water runs off the reef, until suddenly it dashes into the stream to grab a small fish. Then it retreats once more to its place of watchfulness. This watchful, quiet, reserved, almost crafty approach to life is much admired, and parents will encourage their male children with this saying. |
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> Like Beachedarsai's food, only a little but it does not disappear. Beachedarsai and a friend, one day, went to heaven. On arrival they were very hungry, so they visited one of the gods who provided food for them. The "food" was one tiny piece of taro and a bit of fish. Beachedarsai thought to himself that this would hardly suffice, but he picked up the taro and ate it. As he did so another piece appeared on the plate. He ate the piece of fish and another piece of fish appeared. His friend also ate and on his plate as well a new piece of taro or fish appeared as each was consumed. When they were satisfied, there remained on their plates a piece of taro and fish. The idiom is applied to any small blessing, such as a small but steady income, or Western meals that, in contrast with the Palauan tray full of food, are served in small portions, and so on. |
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> He's like the road in Ngerebodel (which doesn't go anywhere in particular) i.e. he's expanding a lot of effort but not getting anywhere. There was once, in the hamlet of Ngerebodl (in Koror, central Palau), reputedly a very fine boulder path which began and ended nowhere in particular. The idiom may describe a person who seems to be working hard toward no apparent objective |
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> Firebrand politics extinguished with water. In a sense this is a response to "Fire brand politics," but it appears to be a fully developed technique none the less. It involves responding to anger with quiet calm and kind words. If it has a character of its own it would be called compromise. Buying the opponent off is approved. J. Useem names this strategy, but was perhaps unaware of the wider significance, For him the phrase pertained to "a small time official who use his authority for his own benefit but shrewdly avoids being detected by superiors." I think that most Palauan political leaders would agree that any political tactitian,knowingly using the strategy of his training, would expect to accomplish as much. |
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> Your mother's brother's head is discarded at Emerert. In head-hunting days villages on the same side-haven as Koror, or otherwise allied, would visit Koror last with heads taken in raids or ambush after visiting several allied villages for dances and money collections marking a successful hunt. By and large, the purpose of head-hunting was economic, with money paid the men of the successful raiding club at each allied village where the heads would be displayed. The collection went to the coffer of their village chief. By the time the warriors reached Koror, then, the heads would often be quite odorous and unpleasant (economically useless). So they would be discarded at a place called Emerert in Koror. From the standpoint of any male ego the mother's brother (okdemaol; okdemelem: your mother's brother) is always significant, since one such individual usually acts as guardian and financial advisor for the younger clan member. The idiom, then, is used by the people of Koror to insult persons of other, generally hostile, villages. |
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