Hot Foot Powder
Hot foot powder has one job: to make a person leave and keep walking. Hyatt’s informants said it was used “fo’ tuh run ’em – run ’em ‘way from dere” (Hyatt 2013 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 698).
Even in the 1930s it was a bought product. “Anybody sell it to yo’ dat kin git it,” said one man (Hyatt 2014 · Fayetteville, N.C. · informant 1433).
How it was laid
- Sprinkled casually round a door, so the target walks over it going in or out (Hyatt 2012 · Jacksonville, Fla. · informant 556).
- Round the door and inside the door (Hyatt 2013).
- Carried to the target’s house by night (Hyatt 2014).
- In New Orleans it was called “hot footstep”: “immediately dey walk out” (Hyatt 2599 · Algiers, La. · informant 1594).
What went into it
- One informant described it as white, “like sugah” (Hyatt 2014).
- Mixed with graveyard dust to bring ill luck (Hyatt 2015 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 918).
- Foot track dirt with sulphur, pepper, hot foot powder and dirt from a wretched man’s grave (Hyatt, Vol. 3 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 688).
- Mixed with cayenne pepper and the target’s “action”, then sealed with a cork stopper (Hyatt, Vol. 3 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 692).
Hot foot to death
Some of the work went further than moving a person on. With a track taken up and hot foot powder added, “dey walks deyself tuh death” (Hyatt, Vol. 4 · Little Rock, Ark. · informant 896).
Another informant described the effect: feet always aching and hurting, toenails and foot skin all involved. “Dat de hot foot” (Hyatt, Vol. 4 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 949).
Hot foot oil
Hyatt notes a rarer cousin, hot foot oil, used by a woman to run another woman’s husband to her, under a hoodoo worker’s direction (Hyatt, Vol. 3 · Vicksburg, Miss. · informant 725).
How it’s worked today
The traditional base has stayed close to what Hyatt heard:
- sulphur
- red pepper or cayenne
- black pepper
- salt
- often wasp nest, chilli or graveyard dirt for a heavier job
It is laid across a doorstep or path, mixed with the target’s foot track and thrown in running water, or put into their shoes. It is aimed at bad neighbours, unwanted lovers, abusive housemates and anyone who needs to be gone.
Learn the work
Module Four, Powders of Power, and Module Six on driving people out.
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.