Re the 2nd post on this now refreshed thread from 10 years ago, about what the poster & his 'fiends' in the army used to do - surely it was the enemy snipers who were the FIENDS!

In the thread after that, as to the throwing of the spilled salt over the shoulder — that is an interestingly complicated one. It has to be the LEFT shoulder — the reason being that the spilling of the salt will have been an action to invoke the Devil; he, as one knows, always approaches from behind on the left, the unlucky or 'sinister' [Latin = 'left'] side, and looks over the invoker's left shoulder. So gathering up the most convenient available weapon [in this case, obviously, the spilled salt] & throwing it into his eye will prove effective in driving him away. QED...