Builder - tag!('p') does not work?

tag! 'p', {'a'=>'b'}
  does not build up a <p a="b"\> element, but prints out the hash instead.
Any idea why?

irb(main):001:0> require 'builder'
=> false
irb(main):002:0> b1 = Builder::XmlMarkup.new
=> <inspect/>
irb(main):003:0> b2 = Builder::XmlMarkup.new
=> <inspect/>
irb(main):004:0> b1.tag!('p', {'a'=>'b'})
{"a"=>"b"}
=> nil

irb(main):008:0> b2.tag!('p2', {'a'=>'b'})
=> "<inspect/><p2 a=\"b\"/>"
irb(main):009:0> p2