Nazar boncuğu is the blue bead believed to ward off evil. It is used as a protection from the negative energy presumed to spread from the glance of certain people to what are deemed particularly vulnerable and precious groups: children, domestic animals and, and at an earlier period, household goods. The beads are hung visibly on the would be victim of the evil eye. This may be the shoulder of a child, the forehead of a calf, the doorpost of a house or the tip of a stick dug in a flower pot. It is believed that the bead draws the energy to itself thus diffusing its power and rendering it ineffective.