diff --git a/lib/webrat/core/matchers/have_xpath.rb b/lib/webrat/core/matchers/have_xpath.rb
index 92adc38..efc9a8d 100644
--- a/lib/webrat/core/matchers/have_xpath.rb
+++ b/lib/webrat/core/matchers/have_xpath.rb
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ module Webrat
 
       def rexml_matches(stringlike)
         if REXML::Node === stringlike || Array === stringlike
-          @query = query.map { |q| q.gsub(%r'//', './') }
+          @query = query.map { |q| q.gsub(%r'^//', './/') }
         else
           @query = query
         end
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ module Webrat
 
       def nokogiri_matches(stringlike)
         if Nokogiri::XML::NodeSet === stringlike
-          @query = query.gsub(%r'//', './')
+          @query = query.gsub(%r'^//', './/')
         else
           @query = query
         end
diff --git a/spec/public/matchers/have_selector_spec.rb b/spec/public/matchers/have_selector_spec.rb
index aad8e48..d7008a9 100644
--- a/spec/public/matchers/have_selector_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/public/matchers/have_selector_spec.rb
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ describe "have_selector" do
         <ul>
           <li>First</li>
           <li>Second</li>
+          <li><a href="http://example.org/">Third</a></li>
         </ul>
       </div>
     HTML
@@ -52,12 +53,12 @@ describe "have_selector" do
 
   describe "specifying counts" do
     it "should be able to specify the number of occurences of the tag" do
-      @body.should have_selector("li", :count => 2)
+      @body.should have_selector("li", :count => 3)
     end
 
     it "should not match if the count is wrong" do
       lambda {
-        @body.should have_selector("li", :count => 3)
+        @body.should have_selector("li", :count => 4)
       }.should raise_error(Spec::Expectations::ExpectationNotMetError)
     end
   end
@@ -97,6 +98,12 @@ describe "have_selector" do
         n.should have_selector("li", :content => "Second")
       end
     end
+
+    it "should work with descendants of the matched elements" do
+      @body.should have_selector("ul") do |n|
+        n.should have_selector("a", :content => "Third")
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   describe "Test::Unit assertions" do
diff --git a/spec/public/matchers/have_xpath_spec.rb b/spec/public/matchers/have_xpath_spec.rb
index 5fe9282..c51e385 100644
--- a/spec/public/matchers/have_xpath_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/public/matchers/have_xpath_spec.rb
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ describe "have_xpath" do
         <ul>
           <li>First</li>
           <li>Second</li>
+          <li><a href="http://example.org">Third</a></li>
         </ul>
       </div>
     HTML
@@ -88,6 +89,12 @@ describe "have_xpath" do
     }.should raise_error(Spec::Expectations::ExpectationNotMetError)
   end
 
+  it "should work with descendants of the matched elements" do
+    @body.should have_xpath("//ul") do |node|
+      node.should have_xpath("//a[@href='http://example.org']")
+    end
+  end
+
   describe 'asserts for xpath' do
     include Test::Unit::Assertions