There's an article in today's NY Times (already covered by a
excellent entry in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laotian_Rock_Rat )
on the discovery and naming of the rodent Laonastes aenigmamus.
The family name (the first new family of mammals in many years) is
a lovely pun for an inhabitant of rocks in Laos, better in my opinion
than (Hesiod's?) pun that made people from the stones cast by
Deucalion and Pyrrha.
This got me curious about Gk. 'laos' (or 'laas') "stone", but I
can't find an etymology. Anyone help? And for that matter, does
anyone have ideas on 'laos' "people" for which all I've found is
"etym. ?".
Dan Milton