The merry beer-drinking, one-legged pirate above feels no pain, but many an older Chamorro refused to have any part of his or her body amputated or removed by doctors.
Why? One reason was :
"Mungnga ma utot addeng-ho sa' dos mana'i-ho as Yu'us ya dos ta'lo para bai nana'lo an måtai yo'."
"Don't cut my foot off because God gave me two of them and two I will return to Him when I die."
Some would say,
"Kabåles yo' ha fa'tinas si Yu'us, ya kabåles yo' para bai måtai."
"God made me complete, and I will die complete."
This went for anything; fingers and internal organs, as well; even if it meant certain death if the diseased body part were not removed.
The logic, of course, is wanting. Accidents happen, too, and people unintentionally lose a finger or a toe here and there. They won't be condemned by God for that on judgment day. God Himself, in the Old Testament, decreed that the Jews at the time even remove part of the skin of the male organ. Not to mention our ever-falling hair and ever-shedding skin.
But, in the minds of some older people, no body part should ever be intentionally amputated, regardless the medical issue.
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