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Why did Sinhalese sickness demon masks have fangs and frightening eyes?

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Carnival mask — Mask Women wearing a mask during Carnival celebrations in Venice, Italy.

Among the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, sickness demon masks are designed with ferocious, fanged, and fiendish features to serve a specific therapeutic purpose in magico-religious rites.1

These masks, which often present a dragonlike appearance with gaudily colored features and sometimes articulating jaws, are used during tovil ceremonies—rituals performed to cure individuals suffering from disease, dementia, or misfortune believed to be caused by malignant spirits. By donning these frightening masks, the dancers embody the demons associated with a particular malady. The chief exorcist then engages with the masked performer, using threats, questioning, and offerings to appease or drive the spirit out of the patient's body, thereby facilitating healing. The terrifying aesthetic of the masks is essential to this process of confronting and exorcising the invisible evil forces that cause illness.21