gtkhtml fonts

[Linas Vepstas]

Hi,
On one of my machines, gtkhtml mangles the fonts.  Basically, it draws 
rectangles instead of letters.   Any clue of what that is about?

I discovered that if I use the gnome font selector (gfontsel),
and pick a different (-sized) font, then gtkhtml will draw
different-sized squares.  ...

I reinstalled, rebooted xfs, xfs-tt, and zillions of fonts to no avail.
edited xf86config, xfs.config, etc. 
exited & restarted the x session a half dozen times, still no-go.

Anyone know how to snoop the font traffic between here and gtkhtml ??

--linas