diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 250efec0a4..ea3c35700d 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+Mon Aug 27 15:56:48 2007  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* string.c (sym_encoding): return the encoding of a Symbol.
+
 Mon Aug 27 15:33:10 2007  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* util.c (IEEE_BIG_ENDIAN): use configured value.  [ruby-dev:31623]
diff --git a/string.c b/string.c
index 11c80d4618..653f4c067e 100644
--- a/string.c
+++ b/string.c
@@ -5171,6 +5171,12 @@ sym_swapcase(VALUE sym)
     return rb_str_intern(rb_str_swapcase(rb_id2str(SYM2ID(sym))));
 }
 
+static VALUE
+sym_encoding(VALUE sym)
+{
+    return str_encoding(rb_id2str(SYM2ID(sym)));
+}
+
 ID
 rb_to_id(VALUE name)
 {
@@ -5367,5 +5373,5 @@ Init_String(void)
     rb_define_method(rb_cSymbol, "capitalize", sym_capitalize, 0);
     rb_define_method(rb_cSymbol, "swapcase", sym_swapcase, 0);
 
-    rb_define_method(rb_cSymbol, "encoding", str_encoding, 0);
+    rb_define_method(rb_cSymbol, "encoding", sym_encoding, 0);
 }