# File temp/xpath.rb, line 22
    def XPath::first element, path=nil, namespaces={}, variables={}
??
#=begin
      raise "The namespaces argument, if supplied, must be a hash object." unless namespaces.kind_of? Hash
      raise "The variables argument, if supplied, must be a hash object." unless variables.kind_of? Hash
      parser = XPathParser.new
      parser.namespaces = namespaces
      parser.variables = variables
      path = "*" unless path
      element = [element] unless element.kind_of? Array
      parser.parse(path, element).flatten[0]
#=end
    end