Gold's industry peers liken the way she does her job to the practice of an alchemist, a snake charmer, a card sharp, as if she were performing some kind of shadowy magic.
Time passed in that way with the Colossus of Rhodes and snake charmers until his wife told him that there were only three pounds of dried meat and a sack of rice left in the pantry.
He noticed that on the east side of the execution ground there was quite a crowd of snake charmers who were trying to get to the execution ground but they were being forced back by the armed guard.