Nyai Loro Kidul is the patron goddess of the bird's-nest gatherers of South Java. The gatherers descend the sheer cliff-face on coconut fiber ropes to an overhang some thirty feet above the water where a rickety bamboo platform has been built. From there they must await their wave, drop into it, and be swept beneath the overhang into the cave. Here they grope around in total darkness filling their bags with bird's nests. Going back needs very precise timing, to avoid misjudging the tides, and falling into the violent waves.