A carved beam made from solid wood and, when in use, decorated with snail shells. Beams of this kind were made for funerary rituals. They were between three and ten meters in length and were placed on forked support posts at a height of about 1.50 m. One or more men danced on this beam during the festival. The beam from the collection was shortened for transportation purposes. The fixings for the snail shell adornments can be clearly seen. Carved crocodile heads at both ends of the beam are reminiscent of similar canoe decorations typical for the Admiralty Islands.The beam, as well as other objects in the Oceania collection, were collected by Wilhelm Lebahn, captain of the Imperial Navy survey ship »S.M.S. Planet«, on which the ethnologist, anthropologist and marine doctor Augustin Krämer was also travelling.The Lebahn collection was sold after his death by his brother-in-law Dr. Rudolf Plähn from Waldkirch.