diff --git a/ext/liboga/org/liboga/xml/Lexer.rl b/ext/liboga/org/liboga/xml/Lexer.rl
index a42c3bf..4b80ae0 100644
--- a/ext/liboga/org/liboga/xml/Lexer.rl
+++ b/ext/liboga/org/liboga/xml/Lexer.rl
@@ -26,6 +26,18 @@ public class Lexer extends RubyObject
     @JRubyMethod
     public IRubyObject advance_native(ThreadContext context)
     {
+        int act = 0;
+        int cs  = 0;
+        int ts  = 0;
+        int te  = 0;
+        int p   = 0;
+        int pe  = 0;
+        int eof = 0;
+        int top = 0;
+
+        int[] data  = {};
+        int[] stack = {};
+
         %% write init;
         %% write exec;
 
diff --git a/lib/oga.rb b/lib/oga.rb
index 1a74658..213e50b 100644
--- a/lib/oga.rb
+++ b/lib/oga.rb
@@ -1,11 +1,17 @@
 require 'set'
 
-require_relative 'liboga'
-
 require_relative 'oga/xml/lexer'
 require_relative 'oga/xml/parser'
 require_relative 'oga/xml/pull_parser'
 
+require_relative 'liboga'
+
+# FIXME: it looks like this should not be needed but stuff doesn't load without
+# it.
+if RUBY_ENGINE == 'jruby'
+  org.liboga.LibogaService.new.basicLoad(JRuby.runtime)
+end
+
 require_relative 'oga/xml/node'
 require_relative 'oga/xml/element'
 require_relative 'oga/xml/document'