diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -398,7 +398,8 @@
         }
         else {
             assert(maxchar >= 0x10000);
-            assert(maxchar <= MAX_UNICODE);
+            /* FIXME: what about byte-swapped unicode data in numpy: */
+            //assert(maxchar <= MAX_UNICODE);
         }
         assert(PyUnicode_READ(kind, data, ascii->length) == 0);
     }
@@ -989,11 +990,13 @@
             is_sharing = 1;
     }
     else {
+#if 0      
         if (maxchar > MAX_UNICODE) {
             PyErr_SetString(PyExc_SystemError,
                             "invalid maximum character passed to PyUnicode_New");
             return NULL;
         }
+#endif
         kind = PyUnicode_4BYTE_KIND;
         char_size = 4;
         if (sizeof(wchar_t) == 4)
@@ -1357,12 +1360,14 @@
         }
         if (ch > *maxchar) {
             *maxchar = ch;
+#if 0
             if (*maxchar > MAX_UNICODE) {
                 PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError,
                              "character U+%x is not in range [U+0000; U+10ffff]",
                              ch);
                 return -1;
             }
+#endif
         }
     }
     return 0;