Isaiah 46:7

They bear him upon the shoulder - and set him in his place - This is the way in which the Hindoos carry their gods; and indeed so exact a picture is this of the idolatrous procession of this people, that the prophet might almost be supposed to have been sitting among the Hindoos when he delivered this prophecy. - Ward'S Customs.

Pindar has treated with a just and very elegant ridicule the work of the statuary even in comparison with his own poetry, from this circumstance of its being fixed to a certain station. "The friends of Pytheas," says the Scholiast, "came to the poet, desiring him to write an ode on his victory. Pindar demanded three drachms, (minae, I suppose it should be), for the ode. No, say they, we can have a brazen statue for that money, which will be better than a poem. However, changing their minds afterwards, they came and offered him what he had demanded." This gave him the hint of the following ingenious esordium of his ode: -

Ουκ ανδριαντοποιος ειμ '

Ὡστ ' ελινυσσοντα μ ' εργαζε - σθαι αγαλματ ' επ ' αυτας βαθμιδοςπ

ἙσταοτΑλλ ' επι πασαςπ

Ὁλκαδος εν τ ' ακατῳ γλυκει ' αοιδαπ

Στειχ ' απ ' Αιγινας διαγγελ -

lois' ὁτι Λαμπωνος ὑιοςπ

Πυθεας ευρυσθενηςπ

Νικῃ Νεμειοις παγκρατιου στεφανον.

Nem. v.