Footprints can be used in magical charms and spells because they are reputed to contain the essence of a person - the dust taken from a print can be worked to gain power over the person who was *crazy* enough not to scuffle the dirt behind them. (Pieces of clothing, hair, fingernails, urine and excretment also have this potential for magic. You're never safe.)
Footprints are found in magic and lore world wide:
- In Irish lore you are told to throw dirt from your footprints at faeries on All Hallow's Eve. This will make them hand over any humans they have taken captive
- Like animals, demons can be tracked. If you suspect a poltergeist or demonic possession in your home, throw around some ashes (and get this guy to clean it up for you]. The being will leave their prints in the ashes, and provided you have a demon hunting guide handy you'll know what's troubling you
- Australian Aborigines think that lameness can be caused by putting sharp stones or glass in a footprint
- Vodoun magic holds that placing footprint dirt into a gris gris will cause a person to follow you
- In some parts of Africa it is thought witches or sorcerers will perform harmful magic upon you if they find your footprints; care must be taken to delete every step
- Lithuanian lore suggets that burying footprint dirt at a cemetery will make someone fall fatally ill
- In European folk magic it is believed that by putting the earth from a heel, a needle, a nail, and broken glass into a kettle, then boiling it all until the kettle cracks - voila!, you have made that person lame
Do you see how susceptible you are to attacks from sneaky dirt stealers? Protect yourself - amputate.