diff --git a/content/buffers.js b/content/buffers.js
index b45f234e..85320fff 100644
--- a/content/buffers.js
+++ b/content/buffers.js
@@ -144,12 +144,14 @@ vimperator.Buffer = function() //{{{
     });
 
     // returns an XPathResult object
-    this.evaluateXPath = function(expression, doc, ordered)
+    this.evaluateXPath = function(expression, doc, elem, ordered)
     {
         if (!doc)
             doc = window.content.document;
+        if (!elem)
+            elem = doc;
 
-        var result = doc.evaluate(expression, doc,
+        var result = doc.evaluate(expression, elem,
             function lookupNamespaceURI(prefix) {
               switch (prefix) {
                 case 'xhtml':