‘In all the ‘witches’ series, Goya constantly comes back to the idea of "badness" or "evil" being passed on from one witch or one beast to another. This moving scene vaguely floats either far above or very close (Goya does not inform us) to a grandiose landscape below. The viewers of this print have no point on which to hold and find themselves also floating through a Tiepolesque sky in which are found one apparently crippled witch carrying another, united together in carrying on some sort of evil activity. As to exactly what that "evil activity" might be and what this print describes, the Madrid Biblioteca Nacional text states: "The old witches are those who break loose (the souls of) young girls, who push them into flying (becoming prostitutes) and teach them to be serpents (or "shrews") and to take money out of pockets (of their eventual clients).’

Johnson, R. S., Francisco Goya, Los Caprichos, R.S. Johnson Fine Art, Chicago, 1992, p. 158.