they never pronounce the name of the dead in order that they may disappear from the presence of the living. They never call their children, as in the case of the Arabs, son of so and so; they give them a name that will live and die with them. There is no exception to this rule except in the families of the marabouts or in the principal families, where the name is intimately bound up with the tribal history. This real or apparent forgetfulness of the dead has its origin in the fear of their return, a general fear which causes the avoidance of anything that might be taken as an evocation.2

2Duveyrier, H.n/an/an/an/an/a, , 431.