Guinea

In Guinea, footprints in sand could reveal the human behind a spirit.

In older Kono rituals, initiated men wore masks representing supernatural beings. The person wearing the mask was not supposed to leave human traces behind.

On dry sand, the long trailing skirt was swept around the body so that footprints were erased as the figure moved. After rain, the masked figure might not appear in the ritual at all, because tracks in wet ground were much harder to conceal.

The feet could not be seen. Neither could the tracks they left behind.