An illustrated own-voices fable about self-acceptance and pride from a member of the Irish
Traveller nomadic ethnic minority Drawn from the Irish Traveller oral storytelling tradition
DeBhairduin's tale is a gentle allegory about difference self-acceptance and different ways of
seeing the world. Two slugs travel happily together as brothers until they meet a crow who
shows them that they have no home. Ashamed one of the slugs decides to make himself a home
and calls himself snail. The brothers grow apart and become suspicious of each other. The slug
with no shell-house feels ashamed until he learns to see that the very road he travels is his
home and so he shall never be homeless. The happy slug no longer sees himself through the
judging eyes of others but proudly asserts his place in the world and the two brothers travel
happily together once more.
