Index: cortav.lua
==================================================================
--- cortav.lua
+++ cortav.lua
@@ -808,14 +808,13 @@
 	}
 end
 
 function ct.parse_span(str,ctx)
 	local function delimited(start, stop, s)
-		-- local r = { pcall(ss.str.delimit, 'utf8', start, stop, s) }
-		-- if r[1] then return table.unpack(r, 2) end
-		-- ctx:fail(tostring(e))
-		return ss.str.delimit(ss.str.enc.utf8, start, stop, s)
+		local r = { pcall(ss.str.delimit, nil, start, stop, s) }
+		if r[1] then return table.unpack(r, 2) end
+		ctx:fail(tostring(r[2]))
 	end
 	local buf = ""
 	local spans = {}
 	local function flush()
 		if buf ~= "" then

Index: sirsem.lua
==================================================================
--- sirsem.lua
+++ sirsem.lua
@@ -263,12 +263,12 @@
 		elseif c == stop then
 			depth = depth - 1
 			if depth == 0 then
 				return s:sub(1+#start, p.byte - #stop), p.byte -- FIXME
 			elseif depth < 0 then
-				ss.str.exn('out of place %s', stop):throw()
+				ss.str.exn('out of place token “%s”', stop):throw()
 			end
 		end
 	end
 
-	ss.str.exn('[%s] expected before end of line', stop):throw()
+	ss.str.exn('token “%s” expected before end of line', stop):throw()
 end