--- home/alex/tmp/Lib/Cookie.py 
+++ usr/lib/python2.6/Cookie.py 
@@ -621,8 +621,8 @@
         is equivalent to calling:
             map(Cookie.__setitem__, d.keys(), d.values())
         """
-        if type(rawdata) == type(""):
-            self.__ParseString(rawdata)
+        if isinstance(rawdata, basestring):
+            self.__ParseString(rawdata.encode('ascii'))
         else:
             self.update(rawdata)
         return