code: private Class<?> parseTypeAttribute(StartElement start, Class<?> defaultType) throws ClassNotFoundException {
          Attribute typeAttr = start.getAttributeByName(TYPE_QNAME);
          if (typeAttr == null) {
              return (defaultType == Object.class ? String.class : defaultType);
          }
          String typeStr = typeAttr.getValue();
          return settings.getDeserializers().decodeType(typeStr, settings, basePackage, knownTypes, defaultType);
      }
docs: -----------------------------------------------------------------------