> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# I doubt you will see anything more touching today than Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, pressing noses with indigenous New Zealanders, air force officers and elders, during the ceremonial…
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/dazhe-ne-znaiu-uvidite-li-vy-segodnia-chto-to-bolee-trogatelnoe-chem-charlza-printsa-uelskogo-i-kamillu-gertsoginiu-kornuolskuiu-prizhimaiushchikhsia-nosami-k-korennym-novozelandtsam-vo/
- Published: 2019-11-18T12:00:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:43:21.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Monarchies, Observations, Ethnography, Humour

The hongi is the traditional Maori greeting, based on the belief that the nose is the centre of the body and that the divine breath passes through it, so that touching the tips of noses makes people close: they have shared one divine breath and are, as it were, united in it.

Which prompts a question: whose breath is it better to share, that of an ordinary Maori or of one of the Windsor dynasts?

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_2053@18-11-2019_15-00-06.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_2054@18-11-2019_15-00-06.jpg)