Procession au Temple du Serpent, Tiree de Desmarchais

C18th engraving of procession to the Snake Temple in the Kingdom of Whydah (present day Benin).

In Africa the chief centre of serpent worship was Dahomey, but the cult of the python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By the conquest of Whydah the Dahomeyans were brought in contact with a people of serpent worshippers, and ended by adopting from them the beliefs which they at first despised. At Whydah, the chief centre, there is a serpent temple, tenanted by some fifty snakes. 

From Prevost, Histoire generale des voyages.