diff --git a/tests/test-merge1 b/tests/test-merge1
--- a/tests/test-merge1
+++ b/tests/test-merge1
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-cat <<'EOF' > merge
-#!/bin/sh
-echo merging for `basename $1`
+cat <<EOF > merge
+import sys, os
+print "merging for", os.path.basename(sys.argv[1])
 EOF
-chmod +x merge
+HGMERGE="python ../merge"; export HGMERGE
 
 mkdir t
 cd t
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ hg add c
 hg commit -m "commit #2" -d "1000000 0"
 echo This is file b1 > b
 echo %% no merges expected
-env HGMERGE=../merge hg merge 1
+hg merge 1
 hg diff --nodates
 hg status
 cd ..; rm -r t
@@ -43,9 +43,9 @@ hg add c
 hg commit -m "commit #2" -d "1000000 0"
 echo This is file b2 > b
 echo %% merge should fail
-env HGMERGE=../merge hg merge 1
+hg merge 1
 echo %% merge of b expected
-env HGMERGE=../merge hg merge -f 1
+hg merge -f 1
 hg diff --nodates
 hg status
 cd ..; rm -r t
@@ -72,9 +72,9 @@ cat b
 
 echo This is file b22 > b
 echo %% merge fails
-env HGMERGE=../merge hg merge 2
+hg merge 2
 echo %% merge expected!
-env HGMERGE=../merge hg merge -f 2
+hg merge -f 2
 hg diff --nodates
 hg status
 cd ..; rm -r t
@@ -96,8 +96,8 @@ hg add c
 hg commit -m "commit #3" -d "1000000 0"
 echo This is file b33 > b
 echo %% merge of b should fail
-env HGMERGE=../merge hg merge 2
+hg merge 2
 echo %% merge of b expected
-env HGMERGE=../merge hg merge -f 2
+hg merge -f 2
 hg diff --nodates
 hg status