Foot Track Magic
Where a person walks, they leave part of themselves. In hoodoo, the dirt from a footprint is as good as a lock of hair.
Hyatt’s informants used foot tracks to keep a lover home, to run an enemy off, to hold a boss in line and to make a person waste away.
Taking the track
- Dirt from the hollow of the foot, the deepest part of the print (Hyatt 1863 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1242; Hyatt 1867 · Fayetteville, N.C. · informant 1429).
- Lifted with a shovel or something like it, not with the bare hands (Hyatt 792).
- Many specified the left foot. One worker took the right track and admitted he did not know why (Hyatt, Vol. 4 · Little Rock, Ark. · informant 896).
- Some measured the foot instead and buried the measure (Hyatt 789 · Deal Island, Md. · informant 108).
To keep someone close
- A woman took a man’s track, put it in a bottle, wrapped it in silk and used it as a doorstop. As long as it was there, he stayed (Hyatt 43 · Jacksonville, Fla. · informant 562).
- Both partners’ tracks tacked under the carpet or at the foot of the door: “That holds you there” (Hyatt 1866 · Petersburg, Va. · informant 449).
- Track dirt tied in a handkerchief, wet with Hearts Cologne, and carried in the pocket (Hyatt 1867).
To control a boss
Dirt from the boss’s track, put in a bottle and buried upside down at the steps of his house early in the morning, before anyone sees you (Hyatt 1863).
To run someone off or hurt them
- Bound with salt and thrown backwards over your shoulder into the fire, so they cannot come back (Hyatt 805 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1104).
- Planted by a grave, so the person starts wasting away (Hyatt 792).
- Mixed with sulphur, pepper, hot foot powder and dirt from a wretched man’s grave (Hyatt, Vol. 3 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 688).
- Nine drops of chamber lye (urine) in each of their tracks turns them round and stops them coming to you (Hyatt 1620 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1574).
Getting free of it
- Throw your own dirty dishwater in your shoes and your tracks, and back out of the gate for three mornings (Hyatt 1221).
- Wear nine grains of red pepper sewn in a bag in your shoe (Hyatt 1447 · Vicksburg, Miss. · informant 749).
How it’s worked today
Foot track work is still one of the most common tricks in conjure, because a track is easy to get and hard to guard.
Workers lift the dirt from the heel or the hollow, often from a barefoot print. They then jar it, nail it, bury it, burn it or mix it into powders, depending on whether the job is to hold, to move or to harm.
Learn the work
Source: Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork, 5 vols., 1970-1978. Numbers refer to Hyatt’s own item numbers; the town and informant number follow. Written by Hoodoo Witch in our own words, with short quotations for reference.