This is a story of why the snail leaves a slimy trail and why it has a shell. Long before your ancestors were born, the snail and the earthworm were the best of friends. They would do anything for each other. However, they did not look the same way they do now.  At that time, the earthworm carried the shell, his house on his back while the snail moved around fast and free without leaving any slimy trail on his path. The earthworm secretly envied the snail for not having a heavy shell to drag around and slow him down.

Because of his shell, the earthworm was always the last one to arrive at the drinking well, and the last to arrive in any of the animal parties and gatherings. As a sign of solidarity in friendship, the snail always moved at the earthworm’s pace. Nevertheless, the earthworm always wished that his friend could help him carry the shell for once but he was too embarrassed to ask for any help.

One early morning, the earthworm’s mother became very sick. The crow, who was the kingdom’s messenger delivered the news to the earthworm that he should go and visit his mother immediately, in a far away hill where she lived. Earthworm agonized over the fact that the fastest he could make to his mother’s home was two days. Nevertheless, he started the journey and asked his best friend, the snail to accompany him.

So, at dawn, they started the journey immediately. By nightfall, they had not moved a significant mile as earthworm’s home was still in the vicinity. Feeling dejected, the earthworm gave up and started crying. His friend, the loyal, devoted snail tried to comfort him.

“Do not give up. Let’s keep moving and we will get there by tomorrow,”  the snail said.

“Stop trying to make me feel better. You and I both know that  I am too slow. If it were not for this shell, I would be at my mother’s place by now,” the earthworm replied, wailing louder.

The snail looked pitifully at his friend’s shell.

“I can take your shell so that you can start moving faster,” the snail offered excitedly.

At first, the earthworm acted like it is too much for the snail to carry his burden and turned down the offer. However, after much persuasion by the snail, the earthworm finally gave in and his shell was offloaded from his back to the snail’s back.

“Please let me run to meet my mother,  and I will come back for you or you can meet me there,” the earthworm said in a concerned tone.

“No problem. Just make sure that your mother is well first,” the snail genuinely agreed.

Hence, the earthworm was able to move faster and in no time had left snail with his heavy shell far behind him.

Snail walked the long distance to earthworm’s mother’s home on his own, dragging his friend’s heavy shell on his back. He believed that the earthworm would come back to help him carry the shell but he never did. A day later, snail finally got to the home.

“Earthworm, are you home?” The snail shouted at the entrance of the earthworm’s mother’s home.

There was no response.

He called and called, but no one answered. Snail started walking around the home looking for the earthworm. To his surprise, he met another snail on the way with a shell-like his walking towards the earthworm’s mothers home.

“Why do you have a shell?”

The snails asked each other in unison and each took turns explaining their story. They later joined forces in finding the earthworms that had burdened them with their shells. As they moved, they found more snails with shells who shared the same story of an earthworm that gave them their shells in order to rush to their sick mother.

As night approached, the snails realized that the earthworms had all tricked them into giving them their heavy shells. Henceforth, they vowed that they will find the earthworms and give them back their shells. They also decided to leave a slimy trail to show the other snails that one of them had gone looking in that area.

As for the earthworms, they enjoyed their new ability to move first. However, they grew cold without their shells but they did not want them back because of the weight. So, they burrowed away into the warm soil below which became their new homes. They thus vowed to stay hidden in the ground where the snails would never find them.

So, to this day, the snail drags the earthworm’s shell and leaves a trail to notify the other snails where they are searching while the earthworm stays hidden in the warmer earth below the ground.