Answer:
Depicting a staff as snakelike could possibly mean that it is just shaped a way a snake is; what I mean is that it may just be twirly or curvy. However if you are relating it towards symbolism it may represent evil, and possibly sneaky because snakes tend to be associated with being sly and representing the devil, which is again evil/darkness.
A.
Gerunds generally end in -ing, and the subject of the prepositional phrase "for meeting" is meeting, which means it is the object of a preposition.
Hope this helps!
