Understanding animal speech
In short: A motif in which a person gains the ability to understand what animals say.
Motif
How does it work in the tale?
In the Dan tale from Liberia, Dea gains this ability with the help of his dogs. They ask him to keep it secret. What he can hear now goes beyond what he can explain to others.
Who can Dea tell about what he hears?
In the Dan tale from Liberia, Dea’s dogs first help him down from a tree. Afterwards he can understand animals, but the dogs tell him to keep that knowledge to himself. The leaves they collect solve his problem in the tree. The problem back in the village is whom he can tell about the things he now learns.