The routine 'fossilize' seems to be causing grief:

<nowiki><pre>
fossilize:
[╨¡╤é╨╛ ╨║╨╛╨╝╨╝╨╡╨╜╤é╨░╤Ç╨╕╨╣]
after fossilization:


removing backslashes:
[╨¡╤é╨╛s╨║╨╛╨╝╨╝╨╡╨╜╤é╨░╤Ç╨╕╨]


The last character is getting munged.  I am guessing that fossilize and unfossilize should be made UTF8 aware...