Question about using python as a scripting language

[heavydada]

I'm writing a small game in python and I need to be able to run some
scripts inside the game. In the game I have these creatures each with
some attributes like name and weight and an action. Right now I'm
saving all this information in an XML file, which I parse whenever I
need it. I can handle the attributes like name and weight because these
are just values I can assign to a variable, but the action part is what
has me stumped. Each of the creatures has a different action() function
(as in, each does something different). I was wondering how I can read
commands from the XML file and then execute them in the game. I read a
document that talked about this, but it was written in Visual Basic and
used a method called callByName or something like that. It could call a
function simply by sending the name as a string parameter. I was
wondering if there was an equivalent in python. I just need some way of
being able to read from the file what function the program needs to
call next. Any help is appreciated.