The Buffis think that jinns are fiendish and dangerous creatures. They are afraid to address them with the names jenn (sing.) or jnun (pl.). For them, calling jinns by such names is a means to invoke them. They attempt to avoid using proper names, especially after al-ʿaṣer prayer when these are thought to leave their subterranean abodes. They think that they may retaliate with brutal revenge. According to Westermarck, Moroccans use euphemistic words like mluk (the owners/masters), sadatna (our lords), jwad (the bountiful/generous), mselmin (Moslems), mwalin al-ʿarḍ (the masters of the ground), ryaḥ (the winds) to refer to them for fear not to be harmed. In the Buffi maraboutic context, both healers and clients use such expressions to refer to them. They may also use expressions like sukkan al-ʿammar (occupying dwellers), mwalin nuba (masters of the turn), llima kay dakrush (those without names) to shirk the impending danger of calling them by their proper name, jnun.
Mohammed Maarouf, Jinn Eviction as a Discourse of Power
