It is now almost extinct, and another - the scimitar-horned oryx of the Sahara - is on the endangered list.

BBC: Zoo kills endangered antelopes

Test this electoral strength against, say, the might of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and it seems like a scimitar taking on an Uzi.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

At 138 feet she's a navy-blue missile with a nearly flat deck, huge winches and an almost impossibly sharp bow that overhangs the water like a scimitar.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The overpowering silliness is partly relieved by fights: Eli slices up many people with a curved, medium-length blade a sort of industrial-age scimitar that he wields like a samurai.

NEWYORKER: The Book of Eli

Goats file through the scrub, an irregular column, with goatee beards, horns like the handles of mountain bikes and mad, golden, dreamy eyes, led by a ram with scimitar horns.

BBC: Sardinia, land and sea

He established his own film company, Scimitar, in the mid-1960s and made a number of satirical films starring Oliver Reed, including The System and I'll Never Forget What's 'Is Name.

BBC: Michael Winner: Death Wish director dies aged 77