The origin of the name ‘belly dance’ comes from the FrenchDanse du ventre, which translates as “dance of the stomach”. Sol Bloom is said to have been the first one to use the English term belly dance, for the dancers of the Chicago’s World Fair in 1893. Belly dance is also oft...
So, farmers decided that building a small fire under the mule's belly would get him moving. There's no proof this was really done a lot by muleskinners. But, the idea and imagery was such that people started using the phrase to mean "trying to get someone to move or take some ...