DTMNodeList returns list containing single element ([A]) instead of just that element (A) in Apache Camel

Issue

• We am using Apache Velocity template to format output from route.
• We are able to access ${exchange.getProperty("CamelSplitIndex")} but not able to access

${exchange.properties.a} and
${exchange.getProperty("Description")} 

• We are getting -- com.sun.org.apache.xml.internal.dtm.ref.DTMNodeList@456e2f instead of value of the property.

• Here is part of the code:

<camel:convertBodyTo type="java.lang.String"></camel:convertBodyTo>
            <to uri="xslt:XSLT/TxtToXMLConversion.xslt"></to>
            <camel:setProperty propertyName="a">
                <xpath>//*[local-name()="a"]/text()</xpath>
            </camel:setProperty>
            <camel:setProperty propertyName="Description">
                <xpath>//*[local-name()="Description"]/text()</xpath>
            </camel:setProperty>
            <!-- <camel:setBody>
                <camel:simple>Record# ${property.CamelSplitIndex}|${property.a}|${property.Description}\r\n</camel:simple>
            </camel:setBody> -->
            <camel:log message="Fetching a... ${property.a}" loggingLevel="INFO" ></camel:log>
            <camel:log message="Fetching Desc... ${property.Description}" loggingLevel="INFO" ></camel:log>
            <camel:log message="Transformed body# ${body}" loggingLevel="INFO"></camel:log>

• The XML file is as below,

<XML>
    <MessageType>1</MessageType>
    <ProcCode>FNTF</ProcCode>

    <a>0168</a>
    <Description> KSM0168  Different currency</Description>

</XML>

• Why does Camel return a list of Nodes rather than single values ? How can we return single values ?