When We Don't Realise the Facts are Wrong

I previously wrote about the Bushmen in Ode to the San: I wrote of a Bushmen hunter who brought down an antelope with a poisoned arrow and I assumed the poison worked quickly. I discovered today that the poison may work very slowly, and a Bushmen hunter may need to track a prey for hours, even days, until the poison takes effect. Firstly I have a quandary whether or not to change my book to show this new fact, and secondly, I have learnt much more about the Bushmen.

What really gripped me was the tracking capability of a Bushman hunter. The craft is learnt over hours and days of tracking animals and is an integral part of Bushman culture. It struck me too that an animal might not associate a Bushmen hunter with death, because the wound inflicted from an arrow is slight and the poison is what really does the work and the animal does not die immediately it is hit. Poison used may be varied, from that of shrubs or of snakes or the larvae of insects. It can be a lot of hard work to gather and prepare the poison, for example, larvae that are used for poison are dug up from the ground, so one needs to locate the specific beetle larvae first.

When I wrote about the Bushmen, I did so assuming I knew my facts and I didn't realise a salient piece of information was incorrect. I may never have discovered that this fact was wrong, but thankfully I did from additional research I did. I wonder, what else may I be oblivious to, in day to day life, in a word spoken to someone in passing, or in an assumption I make about what I have read? What may you be missing?