the descendant axis contains the descendants of the context node; a descendant is a child or a child of a child and so on; thus the descendant axis never contains attribute or namespace nodes

/descendant::*
Select all descendats of document root and therefore all elements
<AAA> <BBB> <DDD> <CCC> <DDD/> <EEE/> </CCC> </DDD> </BBB> <CCC> <DDD> <EEE> <DDD> <FFF/> </DDD> </EEE> </DDD> </CCC> </AAA>
Open the example in XLab. \| Tree view (PNG)

/AAA/BBB/descendant::*
Select all descendats of /AAA/BBB
<AAA> <BBB> <DDD> <CCC> <DDD/> <EEE/> </CCC> </DDD> </BBB> <CCC> <DDD> <EEE> <DDD> <FFF/> </DDD> </EEE> </DDD> </CCC> </AAA>
Open the example in XLab. \| Tree view (PNG)

//CCC/descendant::*
Select all elements which have CCC among its ancestors
<AAA> <BBB> <DDD> <CCC> <DDD/> <EEE/> </CCC> </DDD> </BBB> <CCC> <DDD> <EEE> <DDD> <FFF/> </DDD> </EEE> </DDD> </CCC> </AAA>
Open the example in XLab. \| Tree view (PNG)

//CCC/descendant::DDD
Select elements DDD which have CCC among its ancestors
<AAA> <BBB> <DDD> <CCC> <DDD/> <EEE/> </CCC> </DDD> </BBB> <CCC> <DDD> <EEE> <DDD> <FFF/> </DDD> </EEE> </DDD> </CCC> </AAA>
Open the example in XLab. \| Tree view (PNG)

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