a strange situation of HBase when I issue scan '.META.' command

[yonghu]

Hello,

My HBase version is 0.90.2 and installed in pseudo mode. I have
successfully inserted two tuples in the 'test' table.
hbase(main):005:0> scan 'test'
ROW                        COLUMN+CELL
 jim                       column=course:english,
timestamp=1330949116240, value=1.3
 tom                       column=course:english,
timestamp=1330949141314, value=1.5
2 row(s) in 0.0440 seconds

But when I issued scan 'META.' command, the output is as follows
hbase(main):004:0> scan '.META.'
ROW                        COLUMN+CELL
 test,,1330949037296.78209 column=info:regioninfo,
timestamp=1330949037572, value=REGION => {NAME =>
 59e66aaca7a4a1e736937cdba
'test,,1330949037296.7820959e66aaca7a4a1e736937cdba89.', STARTKEY =>
'',
 89.                        ENDKEY => '', ENCODED =>
7820959e66aaca7a4a1e736937cdba89, TABLE => {{NA
                           ME => 'test', FAMILIES => [{NAME =>
'course', BLOOMFILTER => 'NONE', REPL
                           ICATION_SCOPE => '0', COMPRESSION =>
'NONE', VERSIONS => '3', TTL => '214
                           7483647', BLOCKSIZE => '65536', IN_MEMORY
=> 'false', BLOCKCACHE => 'true
                           '}]}}
 test,,1330949037296.78209 column=info:server,
timestamp=1330949037730, value=huyong-laptop:60020
 59e66aaca7a4a1e736937cdba
 89.
 test,,1330949037296.78209 column=info:serverstartcode,
timestamp=1330949037730, value=1330944724819
 59e66aaca7a4a1e736937cdba
 89.
1 row(s) in 0.0310 seconds

My question is that why the startkey and endkey fields are empty? As
you see, the test table has two tuples.

Thanks.

Yong