urashima was lost in bewilderment and trouble. he stood looking all around him, terribly puzzled, and, indeed, something in the appearance of everything was different to what he remembered before he went away, and the awful feeling came over him that what the man said was perhaps true. he seemed to be in a strange dream. the few days he had spent in the sea king's palace beyond the sea had not been days at all: they had been hundreds of years, and in that time his parents had died and all the people he had ever known, and the village had written down his story. there was no use in staying here any longer. he must get back to his beautiful wife beyond the sea.