I bet they forgot which house you came from so left them near where they were working, hoping you could return for them. It's a really nice thing to give them a treat and keep them warm. I know it's going to get warmer, the closer they got to hell but it's a long old dig to get there. Plus you have to cross the river Styx and traverse purgatory before you get there. 😜
I bet your friend was really happy to get his own spoon of strength. Sometimes the symbolism is the most important thing and it makes it really special.
My mum had a special teaspoon that travelled with us all over the world. I don't remember how it became special in the first place but it was a very handsome spoon with a nice deep bowl shape and narrow point. The handle was beautifully decorated and everything was finished off so there was no hard edges and it balanced in your hand nicely, so I also thought it was special. One day mum was washing up and on the boat (my parents one, not ours), if you had washing up water that was a bit oily or had food particles in it, rather than risk it bunging up the pump you use to pump it away, you use a washing up bowl. Then you can throw the water directly overboard. As you are using seawater to wash up with, the fish love it because it's almost like you are feeding them as the dart around eating the little bits of food in the water.
Any way this particular day, Mum forgot to feel around in the bottom of the washing up bowl to check for anything left in it and threw the water overboard. All I heard was a morn full cry as she saw the glint of the favourite teaspoon, glistening as it followed the water. We were anchored in the lee of one of the islands that is part of Tonga, which are known for the clarity of the water. Looking downward from the dinghy we could see the teaspoon as a tiny little thing nestled between the vibrant coral. So I got on my scuba mask, flippers, snorkel and jumped overboard to try to dive for it. I was a fit young teenager at the time and used to holding my breath for cleaning the hull of the boat, so I was quite confident in my free diving ability. However what we didn't realise was, that despite being able to see the spoon clearly, it was over 50 feet underwater. I had only previously been able to dive to 40 feet before I would run out of breath and the pain in my ears would become too intense. So after multiple times of trying it looked like we wouldn't be able to retrieve the special spoon.
By now we had attracted the interest of some locals, who paddled out in their canoe to see what all the mad splashing from my flippers was about, as I was kicking as hard as I could to try to descend as rapidly as possible. The locals free dive all day every day, to spearfish or collect sea sponges, so they joined in the mission. It was still too deep for their strongest divers to get too. Then I had a brainwave. I held onto an anchor as it was being lowered to the seabed to go deeper without using much energy. I only had a nanosecond to grab the spoon and the pain in my head was incredibly painful but I was triumphant. That little spoon was with us as we sailed around the world and my mum never failed to check the washing up bowl again!