set a variable to a node-set that contains *

Hi,

  I am having some trouble set a variable to a
node-set that contains "*".

source XML:
  <row>
    <cell column="1">*BidType</cell>
    <cell column="2">LineItemCode</cell>
  </row>

XSL:
<xsl:variable name="bidHeader" select="."/>
<xsl:value-of select="$bidHeader"/>

When the * is not there, I got
$bidHeader=BidTypeLineItemCode
which is correct.

When the * is there, I got nothing in return.  I tried
&#x2A; replacing *, still nothing.

Anything I did wrong?

Thanks,
Xiaocun

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