An owl's hoot, a fawn that "cries," fire popping in the hearth, twitching eyebrows-all held special meaning for Timucua Indians, the hunters and farmers who lived in hundreds of villages in north peninsular Florida and southern Georgia.

   Spanish missionary friars regarded such beliefs as "signs of the devil" and sought to replace them with Catholic doctrine.

   But they had to compete with Timucuan priest shamans, powerful religious and medical practitioners who were thought to make rain and conjure up storms, cast spells on individuals, find lost objects, and perform soothsaying before war. 

   They also prepared charms from herbs, snakeskins, blackened palm fronds, white feathers, newly tanned hides, and owl eyes. The priest shamans offered prayers to cornfields before planting, to newly constructed fish weirs (dams), and to just-harvested or collected food products.

   Before eating new foods, prayers and ceremonies (usually a food sacrifice) were performed. The Indians believed in many omens. In addition to owls and fawns, they had beliefs involving snakes and woodpeckers. Lightning also had in meaning, as did the popping of a fire. And the twitching of eyes and mouths (as well as eyebrows) was seen as significant. On special occasions the Indians took Black Drink, a sacred tea brewed from the Yaupon holly.

   A book written in 1613 provides a glimpse into their beliefs. The author, a missionary priest on Fort George Island north of Jacksonville, wrote it to help friars in Florida administer to the Timucua. 

   Father Francisco Pareja lists questions that priests should ask Indians during confession:

   During the colonial period, Franciscan missionary friars actively campaigned against these ideas and, over a generation or two, many of the indigenous beliefs did fade away.