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> It's like the first drop of feces of Ngiraidechiil. i.e. the best or worst is yet to come. Ngiraidechiil had just assembled his fishing gear when he felt the urge to relieve himself. In the bush he started to do so when, with the first small drop of feces, a rat scooted under him and made off with it. He looked at the scurrying animal and called: "Wait, you, that was just the first drop, more and bigger ones will follow!" The resulting saying has to do with desirability of delayed rewards. It was used, for example, with reference to the first rations received from the military following World War II. |
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> Like coconut syrup. A general reference to incestuous relations. That this is a recent idiom, probably first used during the period of Japanese administration, is suggested by the Japanese word "ameyu," used in Palau to mean coconut syrup. The incident from which the idiom derives is said to be one in which a Palauan coconut-syrup maker had relations with his wife's sister. |
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> Like the raid at Ulong, doing it in the evening Pertains to a battle between the people of the once-inhabited islands of Ulong and Ngemelis in which the leader of the Ngemelis forces successfully defeated those of Ulong by attacking in the evening with the setting sun directly at his back, blinding the Ulong forces. Application is to a meeting or task, which might better have been started earlier, postponed until evening |
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> Like the kingfisher, chattering while taking to wing. The kingfisher, a restless, bullying bluebird, may be heard to chatter loudly when flying up from the ground or from a perch. The saying applies to one who suddenly spouts instructions to a group, then leaves, or to a leader at a meeting who impatiently interrupts a discussion with a burst of pronouncements, then ends the meeting. |
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> He's like Chelebesoi of Ngeriil, dead in a fishtrap not his own. A man named Chelebesoi (also the name of a fish) was robbing another man's fish trap when a head-hunting party came by and removed his head. He lost both his head and his reputation. The idiom may apply to one who gets hurt while trying to do someone else's job. |
