TO DAYDREAM | a situation when a person is thoughtful, absorbed with things of little importance.
The “musarañas” (shrews) are little animals similar to mice, they live hidden in the subsoil and have an extended and slightly curved nose.
In the work Cuento de Cuentos, Quevedo was already mentioning the act of contemplating shrews, and Seijas Patiño provides us with an explanation of this saying: “To look in a direction we’re not supposed to look at, due to our distraction. The shrew is an animal that lives hidden in the underground amd in the fields, or, by extension, any bug or little reptile; the proverb definitely refers to shrews’ little utility, and to a person’s tendency to get distracted by thing of little value.