Meanings behind "吹牛" and "拍马屁"

Question

I would like to find out more about the two sayings "吹牛" and "拍马屁".

How these sayings come about and get their current meanings?

吹牛 chuīniú meaning to brag

拍马屁 pāimǎpì meaning to excessively flatter someone

Answer 1

I found something in Baidu Encyclopedia.

For 吹牛

http://baike.baidu.com/view/3806.htm

Originally 吹牛 comes from 吹牛皮 (blowing cow leather). In the old times, people who lived along the Yellow River used cow leather to make rafts, cuz the yellow river could easily destroy wood boats. However there was no bumpers at that time. So it was strong people who were responsible to blow air into the "leather bag" to make it a raft. However, even the strongest man could not make it by himeself. So if someone says "I can blow a raft by myself", he must be bragging. As a result, people use 吹牛皮 to refer to bragging.

The photo comes from: http://www.chinavalue.net/Wiki/%E7%89%9B%E7%9A%AE%E7%AD%8F.aspx

For 拍马屁

http://baike.baidu.com/view/26474.htm

When it was Yuan dynasty in ancient China, the mongolians loved riding horses (cuz they conquered China and many other places with their cavalry force). At that time, when a mongolian met another mongolian, he would pat the other's horse, and say something like "nice horse". It was the best way to make generals and officers of the Yuan dynasty happy by saying "your horses are good". And when the mongolians ruled China, this custom also came to China.

However, originally it was 拍马 (patting the horse), not 拍马屁.

Forgive my translate ^_^