diff --git a/morss.py b/morss.py
index 6a4536f..6efbe21 100644
--- a/morss.py
+++ b/morss.py
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ class XMLMap(object):
 		else:
 			out = self._xml.__getattr__(tag)
 
-		return unicode(out) if self._str else out
+		return out.text.encode('utf-8') if self._str else out
 
 	def __getitem__(self, tag):
 		if self.__contains__(tag):