diff --git a/tools/scripts/bldicures.py b/tools/scripts/bldicures.py
index 907f8363c5..2ef2cde517 100755
--- a/tools/scripts/bldicures.py
+++ b/tools/scripts/bldicures.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/python
 #
-# Copyright (C) 2013 IBM Corporation and Others. All Rights Reserved.
+# Copyright (C) 2013-2014 IBM Corporation and Others. All Rights Reserved.
 #
 print "NOTE: this tool is a TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW and not a supported ICU tool."
 #
@@ -37,12 +37,14 @@ import sys
 import argparse
 import os
 
+endian=sys.byteorder
+
 parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Yet Another ICU Resource Builder', epilog='ICU tool, http://icu-project.org - master copy at http://source.icu-project.org/repos/icu/tools/trunk/scripts/bldicures.py')
 parser.add_argument('-f', '--from', action='append', dest='fromdirs', help='read .txt files from this dir', metavar='fromdir', required=True)
 parser.add_argument('-n', '--name', action='store', help='set the bundle name, such as "myapp"', metavar='bundname', required=True)
 parser.add_argument('-m', '--mode', action='store', help='pkgdata mode', metavar='mode', default="archive")
 parser.add_argument('-d', '--dest', action='store', dest='destdir', help='dest dir, default is ".".', default=".", metavar='destdir')
-parser.add_argument('-e', '--endian', action='store', dest='endian', help='endian, big or little, default is "host".', default="host", metavar='endianness')
+parser.add_argument('-e', '--endian', action='store', dest='endian', help='endian, big, little or host, your default is "%s".' % endian, default=endian, metavar='endianness')
 parser.add_argument('--verbose', '-v', action='count',default=0)
 
 args = parser.parse_args()
@@ -57,15 +59,16 @@ os.makedirs('%s/%s/' % (args.destdir, tmpdir))
 
 listname = '%s/%s/icufiles.lst' % (args.destdir, tmpdir)
 
+
+
 if args.endian not in ("big","little","host"):
     print "Unknown endianness: %s" % args.endian
     sys.exit(1)
 
-if args.endian not in ("big"):
-    print "Unsupported endianness: %s" % args.endian
-    sys.exit(1)
+if args.endian is "host":
+    args.endian = endian
 
-needswap = args.endian not in ("host")
+needswap = args.endian is not endian
 
 if needswap and args.mode not in ("archive", "files"):
     print "Don't know how to do swapping for mode=%s" % args.mode
@@ -119,15 +122,11 @@ for dir in args.fromdirs:
             if (path.find("/.svn") != -1):
                 continue
             for file in files:
-                if (file.find(".txt") == -1):
+                if (file[-4:] != ".txt"):
                     if args.verbose>1:
-                        print "Ignoring %s/%s" % (path,file)
-                    continue
-                (loc,ext) = file.split('.')
-                if ext != "txt":
-                    if args.verbose>1:
-                        print "Ignoring (bad ext %s) %s/%s" % (ext, path,file)
+                        print "Ignoring %s/%s with suffix %s" % (path,file, file[-4:])
                     continue
+                loc = file[:-4]
                 add_loc(path, loc)
 
 print >>idxfn, " }"