Much to suck

A group of three witches, or alcahuetas, are resting while drinking snuff, a preparation made from tobacco which, after being flavoured, was consumed through the nose. They are seated on the floor and are dressed in large robes that cover their heads in the case of the two in the foreground. Their weathered and aged faces have deformed, almost caricatured features and their hands are bony, ending in long nails. In the background we can see two bats taking flight and, on the front of the engraving, Goya has painted a basket full of children's bodies.

The artist used a medium-grain aquatint that contrasts with the white areas of the two figures in the centre and the children in the basket.

In Ayala's manuscript we are told the following about this engraving: "It seems that man is born and lives to be sucked. The ruffians keep a good account of the baskets of children, which are made by their means, or are disgraced with their abortifacients". This idea is reiterated in two other manuscripts, in the Prado Museum and the Biblioteca Nacional, in which the dedication of these three characters to abortive practices is noted.

This engraving should be related to the previous one, No. 44, Thin spindle, in which the painter depicted three women who could be witches or procuresses who also performed abortions, as can be seen from the presence of the bodies of children, perhaps foetuses, hanging from the ceiling.