Snitches

Three witches cover their ears to avoid being blown away by the demonic creature that flies over them with its wings spread out on the back of a cat. This infernal being has spread wings and feline claws. They are also met by the sucking of a pair of buttocks that are directed towards the face of the warlocks. On the right are the heads of two animals, one of which has horns and its jaws open as if it were screeching.

The etching of the print has very well-defined lines, the aquatint is single-tone and was passed through the burnisher before the lettering was engraved.

The Prado manuscript interprets this scene as a pun on the title, which comments on the witches' lack of intelligence: "Los Bruxos soplones son los mas fastid.s detona la Brux.a y los menos yntelig.s en aquel arte. si supieran algo no se meterian à soplones". However, the manuscript of the National Library gives a different reading: "The auricular confession serves only to fill the ears of the friars with filth, obscenities and filth". It is possible, as in other engravings in this series, that the image has a double meaning.

One of the visual sources for this print must have been the Self-belief celebrated in the city of Logroño on 6 and 7 November 1610 by Leandro Fernández de Moratín (Madrid, 1760-Paris, 1828). In it he mentions the witches who confessed to the devil, although here the term "snitch" can be identified with "informer", thus Goya satirizes those who denounced other people to the Inquisition.

For other specialists, this work could be a criticism of the confessions made to clerics, as the figure in the foreground looks like a monk wearing a habit, which would tie in with the interpretation provided by the manuscript in the National Library.