diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 52c9cd3bef..213c7ddd82 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+Fri Aug 25 22:32:04 2006  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* lib/rexml/source.rb (REXML::IOSource#initialize): encoding have to
+	  be set with the accessor.  fixed: [ruby-list:42737]
+
 Fri Aug 25 17:15:17 2006  Yukihiro Matsumoto  <matz@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* stable version 1.8.5 released.
@@ -10,7 +15,7 @@ Tue Aug 22 18:47:51 2006  Yukihiro Matsumoto  <matz@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* lib/rdoc/parsers/parse_c.rb (RDoc::C_Parser::handle_method):
 	  rdoc documents C module methods as instance methods. a patch in
-	  [ruby-core:08536]. 
+	  [ruby-core:08536].
 
 Sat Aug 19 14:15:02 2006  NAKAMURA Usaku  <usa@ruby-lang.org>
 
diff --git a/lib/rexml/encoding.rb b/lib/rexml/encoding.rb
index 644957439e..8acc8a3698 100644
--- a/lib/rexml/encoding.rb
+++ b/lib/rexml/encoding.rb
@@ -54,8 +54,8 @@ module REXML
 
     def check_encoding str
       # We have to recognize UTF-16, LSB UTF-16, and UTF-8
-      return UTF_16 if str[0] == 254 && str[1] == 255
-      return UNILE if str[0] == 255 && str[1] == 254
+      return UTF_16 if /\A\xfe\xff/n =~ str
+      return UNILE if /\A\xff\xfe/n =~ str
       str =~ /^\s*<?xml\s*version=(['"]).*?\2\s*encoding=(["'])(.*?)\2/um
       return $1.upcase if $1
       return UTF_8
diff --git a/lib/rexml/source.rb b/lib/rexml/source.rb
index cacab221db..c51f504811 100644
--- a/lib/rexml/source.rb
+++ b/lib/rexml/source.rb
@@ -135,14 +135,14 @@ module REXML
       # the XML spec.  If there is one, we can determine the encoding from
       # it.
       str = @source.read( 2 )
-      if (str[0] == 254 && str[1] == 255) || (str[0] == 255 && str[1] == 254)
-        @encoding = check_encoding( str )
+      if /\A(?:\xfe\xff|\xff\xfe)/n =~ str
+        self.encoding = check_encoding( str )
         @line_break = encode( '>' )
       else
         @line_break = '>'
       end
       super str+@source.readline( @line_break )
-		end
+    end
 
 		def scan(pattern, cons=false)
 			rv = super