diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index d826ccd32d..584c382f47 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@ Tue Jan 21 16:59:18 2003  NAKAMURA Usaku <usa@ruby-lang.org>
 	* instruby.rb: use real interpreter pathname at shebang line.
 	  [ruby-dev:19370]
 
+Tue Jan 21 16:22:32 2003  Yukihiro Matsumoto  <matz@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* parse.y (arg): put back old ** behavior for negative number
+	  right operand.
+
 Tue Jan 21 14:46:12 2003  Tanaka Akira  <akr@m17n.org>
 
         * lib/pp.rb: Use Test::Unit.
diff --git a/parse.y b/parse.y
index 723c239ead..5bbcf06d64 100644
--- a/parse.y
+++ b/parse.y
@@ -1022,7 +1022,26 @@ arg		: lhs '=' arg
 		    }
 		| arg tPOW arg
 		    {
+			int need_negate = Qfalse;
+
+			if ($1 && nd_type($1) == NODE_LIT) {
+
+			    switch (TYPE($1->nd_lit)) {
+			      case T_FIXNUM:
+			      case T_FLOAT:
+			      case T_BIGNUM:
+				if (RTEST(rb_funcall($1->nd_lit,'<',1,INT2FIX(0)))) {
+				    $1->nd_lit = rb_funcall($1->nd_lit,rb_intern("-@"),0,0);
+				    need_negate = Qtrue;
+				}
+			      default:
+				break;
+			    }
+			}
 			$$ = call_op($1, tPOW, 1, $3);
+			if (need_negate) {
+			    $$ = call_op($$, tUMINUS, 0, 0);
+			}
 		    }
 		| tUPLUS arg
 		    {